The 2025 Brooks XC Championships: a wonderful day in San Diego!

The 2025 Brooks XC Championships, a wonderful day in San Diego, Jackson Spencer and Natasza Dudek win Brooks’ first cross-country championships!

The story behind the story…

After forty-five years, the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships was KAPUT! Rumors had been going on that Foot Locker was having a tough time in keeping the iconic series going. Behind the scenes, he Meet Directors and their teams wanted to keep the events alive. In the fall, Foot Locker, with no notice, told the meet directors that the 45 year old series was going to shut down. A small cadre of interested folks got together and pursued a sponsor, hoping against hope that they could keep the series alive. It did not look promising. Who could respond to save the series in less than three months?

Truth is, the Foot Locker series was never about business. In 1979, Kinney started the series, due, according to some rumors, that a higher-up at Kinney had a high schooler in cross-country. The Kinney executive saw that there was no National championship for cross country and the race was on. The cost, in mid six figures, to host the meet, house the athletes, provide travel, food and entertainment meant that whoever came on board must have rather deep pockets.

Kinney morphed to Foot Locker, which morphed to East Bay and which morphed back to Foot Locker. In that time, Foot Locker went through at least eight to ten footwear sponsors. Foot Locker was notoriously tough to deal with, and the likes of Reebok, New Balance, Saucony, ASICS, adidas, NIKE among others sponsored the beloved event and it somehow chugged along.

HOKA was the sponsor in 2024, and had two more years in their contract. When DICKS Sporting goods purchased Foot Locker, which had been ailing for years, DICKS had to make some business decisions. One of them was to eject the Foot Locker Cross Country.

The Foot Locker series is cancelled…

DICKS Sporting Goods sells alot of running shoes, but truth is, they know very little about performance running. If they had one person in management who had gotten it, they would have held onto Foot Locker for dear life. The event, cost $350k a year to do, and that does not include the swag the athletes recieve. The top 40, now 50 athletes, 40 boys (49 this year), 40 girls (48 this year) are flown to San Diego after finishing in top ten in their regions. Three regions are held on last Saturday in November, and one regional, West is held in first weekend of December.

In 2005, Foot Locker annoyed NIKE enough that they started the NIKE Cross Nationals, now it its twentieth year, and a true celebration of the team aspect of cross-country. NIKE does it up like few others and the event in 2025 on December 6, was no exception. The truth was, the Foot Locker series had been on auto-pilot for some time.

Brooks saves the iconic series…

In early September 2025, Foot Locker shut down the event. Within hours, New Balance, HOKA and now, Brooks were in the fight for FL ownership or legacy of FL ownership. The meet directors insisted on the event going on in 2025, and that was a hanging point for HOKA. Brooks responded, signed sealed and delivered in 96 hours. NINETY-SIX HOURS!

Garrett Heath, a former world class miler, cross country runner and then, trail runner, is now the Head of Sports Marketing at Brooks. While RunBlogRun has not spoken to Mr. Heath for this story, a decade plus of conversations with the then athlete, now sports marketing executive,  gives this writer the impression that Garrett Heath, enthused with this possibility, put his team to work and did the political machincations within the nearly 2 billion dollar footwear company to get the job done. In 4 days, Brooks signed the contract, for a reported seven figures. Some executives close to the decision were pleasantly surprised with the speed and focus on the Brooks Sports Marketing group and how they were able to pull off the near impossible in less than 90 days!

Now the hard stuff began…

A small cadre of Julia Stamps (FL winner), Jesse Williams (Sound Running), Craig Vanderhoff (Sound Running, apparel genius), Garrett Heath (Brooks sports marketing), Jorge Torres and Peter Henkes, along with the two other meet directors of the former FL series, were hard at work. Everyone involved believed in the series, but also knew it would be very close to keep the series alive in 2025. The word “insanity” was used in describing the build-up to this 2025 championships. I would suggest that “Overly enthusiastic’ might be a better way to describe this group of merry cross-country promoters.

In ninety days, the focused team  brought in other sponsors as the presenting sponsor was Fleet Feet Sports,  As  the 333 stores  of Fleet Feet Sorts reach out to the 37,553 head cross country and track coaches in the US, the conduit to 1.56 million 14-18 year olds competing in cross country and track, the proverbial running pot of gold in past, present and future, this is an astute move for the running store brand. This move was not just astute by Fleet Feet, it was brilliant.

FloTrack was recruited to put on the broadcast, and Ryan Fenton, Track and Field director, and man with best three-day beard on the planet, put together a fine broadcast, with Carrie Tollefson and Kara Goucher and a superb inhouse team. Ryan Fenton recognizes that delivering events like the Brooks XC brings in a younger demo for his network, and that the Brooks XC has the possibility of helping him build core athletic properties.

Brooks underwrote the free streaming broadcast, to insure that thousands were able to enjoy two fantastic races and that the first year of the Brooks XC.

The Brooks XC Regionals happened…

A huge part of the success of the series has been that the four regionals give boys and girls from around the U.S. a chance to make a national championships. Show up to the NorthEast, SouthEast, Midwest or West regional, finish in the top ten Boys and Girls and you are off to San Diego!

This year, under Brooks’ imprimatur, Sound Running, one of the partners with Brooks introduced the Golden Ticket, a promotion that is used in the Brooks PR Invite, Brooks the fifteen year old old track and field celebration of running very fast (for middle schoolers, junior high, high schoolers and sometimes, an elite event). The Brooks Golden Ticket at the Brooks XC looked prescient, as they picked Jackson Spencer (winner of NXR Southwest and NXN), and Marcelo Mantecon, as well as Jaeylyn Williams (third at NXN, CIF State Champion and Brooks NIL athlete).

This writer went to the Midwest Brooks XC regional on a snowy and windy November 29, 2025. Peter Henkes, who has put on the Midwest regional since before time began (that is Midwest sarcasm, meaning that Peter Henkes, beloved and respected in the Midwest, puts on a great cross-country meet. While there were less time than ever to let coaches and athletes know that the event was happening, Peter Henkes and his team, like Brett Schumacher and Jorge Torres in the NorthEast, and teams in the West and SouthEast, reached out to the top athletes and coaches, and let them know that Brooks XC had arrived!

The Midwest regional races were fantastic. The snow was coming down about an inch to two inches an hour, and the fans were loving it, as were the athletes. Truth is, the Brooks Midwest regional was much warmer than the year prior, as the blanket of soft new snow brought up the temperature into the high 20s, perfect running weather in Wisconsin.

Calvin Seitz and Lucas Tanner duked it out for Midwest Boys’s supremacy and Sofia Szolosi and Emma Hoffman battled for the Midwest Girls’ title.

Carrie Tollefson, Olympian at 1,500 meters, one of our finest sports announcers and for the 29th, Mother to Ruby Peterson, a vibrant sophomore cross-country runner told RunBlogRun with a smile: ” The Midwest makes you tough, and it is a wonderful day for cross-country.”

Balboa Park, the iconic course in San Diego

The regional athletes who qualified for San Diego were arriving by Wednesday at the Hotel del Coronado, the place where the athletes are celebrated for the weekend. Foot Locker always built a wonderful weekend, as did the past sponsors, and Brooks was no different.

The swag that the athletes receive, fine shoes, apparel and special touches were done in a very short time. That was the work (apparel side) of Craig Vanderhoff and Sound Running, who is a phenom when it comes to apparel and knows where and how to get things done on a deadline.

The swag and the culture of the event gives these young athletes a weekend that they will not soon forget. The ability to meet athletes of similar abilities, speak with coaches, speak with media and brand teams is truly exciting for many of the athletes.

The races…

The Girls race, and then, there were three….

The Girls Championship race was held at 9:15 AM Pacific time. It was cloudy and gray. The 48 athletes lined up, and after the intros, were off!

Carrie Tollefson, in her role as color commentary noted how much she liked the introductions of the fields. This writers thinks that intros are truly important in our sport: it helps build suspense and helps educate the fans, both serious and not so serious.

The paces was furious, 5:19 for the mile, 10:56 for two miles and then, there were three: Jaeylyn Williams, third in the NXN last week, Blair Bartlett, second at NXN and Natasza Dudek, winner of NXN. These three women were in front of 46 other young women, running over hill and dale, to the delight of the fans both on site and remote.

At the last hill, Natasza Dudek charged away, breaking up the final three! Blair Bartlett would finish two plus seconds behind Natasza Dudek, with Jaeyln Williams in third.

These three are, with little discussion, the top three Girls cross-country runners in the U.S. in 2025!

Girls top ten

1. Natasza Dudek, Midwest, 16:55.5
2. Blair Bartlett, Northeast, 16:57.1
3. Jaelyn Williams, West, 17:17.2
4. Sophia Szolosi, Midwest, 17:19.2
5. Abigail Hennessy, Northeast, 17:21.8
6. Maddie Gullickson, Midwest, 17:24.7
7. Leah Starkey, Northeast, 17:25.0
8. Lily Alder, West, 17:31.7
9. Averi Lowen, South, 17:35.4
10.Virginia Kraus, Northeast, 17:36.5

Link to complete results, by Finished Results:
https://finishedresults.trackscoreboard.com/meets/13897/events/12707

The Boys’ race was a very close race. The forty top finishers from the 4 regionals were there, plus nine of the Golden Ticket athletes were there as well.

Twenty-one athletes were between 4:48 and 4:51 . Nine seconds separated the top ten. Jackson Spencer, the winner at NXN, had expressed to the media that he wanted to make a run at Rueben Reina’s Course record of 14:35, which is thirty-five years old. He did not.

Spencer was 20th at the half mile in 2:21 and 20th at the mile, in 4:50.8. By one and one half miles, Spencer had moved into 8th (7:18), with Calvin Seitz, Midwest winner in second in 7:17 and Marcelo Mantecon in lead in 7:14.8.

Spencer moved up to second (9:53.8) and Marcelo Mantecon in lead (9:50.8). At 2.5 miles, Marcelo Mantecon lead in 12:15.7 and Spencer in 12:18.8.

Just past the 2.5 mile mark, Jackson Spencer made a push and started to move away from Marcelo Mantecon, leading 14:42 to 14:43.5.

With a herculean effort, Marcelo Mantecon called upon his inner focus and charged back to challenge Jackson Spencer, who some how willed himself in front of Mantecon and took the win 15:10.7 to 15:10.9.

That Jackson Spencer and Marcelo Mantecon were both Golden Tickets should tell our friends at Brooks Running something! That they Brooks Golden Tickets are not only very popular but very important to the race.

Oh, and Jackson Spencer, the #1 ranked male U.S. high school cross country finished the season undefeated. Jackson will be headed to Brigham Young University in the fall. Marcelo Mantecon was impressive, as was Caden Leonard and Yohannes Van Meerten.

After the race, Jackson Spencer released the demons from his stomach, as happens sometimes after a rather stressful race.

The inaugural Brooks XC went off well, with challenges that were slight, and those can be fixed in year two. In the end, Brooks XC saved an event that needed saving and gave Brooks a foot in the door with the 14-18 year old market.

Two well done races for the history books!

Boys top ten

1. Jackson Spencer, West, 15:10.7
2. Marcelo Mantecon, South, 15:10.9
3. Caden Leonard, South, 15:18.4
4. Yohannes Van Meerten, West, 15:21.2
5. Sean Fries, Midwest, 15:21.6
6. Paul Van Laningham, South, 15:27.2
7. Conor Lott, West, 15:30.5
8. Calvin Seltz, Midwest, 15:33.4
9. Rocco Culpepper, Midwest, 15:35.7
10. Kavi Gibson, South, 15:36.8

Team Scores
1. South, 34 points
2. Midwest, 45 points
3. Wdd 49 points
4. Northeast, 102 points

Link to Finished Results on Complete Boys Championships results:
https://finishedresults.trackscoreboard.com/meets/13897/events/12708