On Saturday, December 10th, at Balboa Park in San Diego, the Champs Sports Cross Country National Championship, formally known as Footlocker/Eastbay, will take place. Six runners are set to represent Pennsylvania at the prestigious California meet. These national qualifying athletes are amongst the 40 best boy and girl runners in the country.
Girls:
Natalie McLean (Pine-Richland) will start the action as the gun goes off for the girls' race at 9:15 a.m. PST/12:15 p.m. EST. The Georgetown University commit is the only Pennsylvania girl to qualify after she took 8th place at the Champs Northeast Regional meet.
She will join a strong team of girls representing the Northeast, including a few title contenders. Ellie Shea (MA), Karrie Balloga (NY), and Zariel Macchia (NY) have all been tabbed favorites.
McLean is looking to close a monumental season in which she won both the PIAA Foundation XC Invitational and PIAA 3A State Championship. Her elite consistency has been exciting to watch all year. Now we'll watch to see what kind of race she can put together on the national stage.
Boys:
The boys' race will start at 10:00 a.m. PST/1:00 p.m. EST.
Drew Griffith (Butler) and Brian DiCola (Hatboro Horsham) are two PA runners you should expect to see battling with the front pack on Saturday. Griffith is going into the meet as the top qualifier out of the Northeast after he won the regional meet in 15:20.90. DiCola finished fifth, running 15:33.50 respectively.
The region meet evened the season score at 1-1 between the two after DiCola won over Griffith at the PIAA 3A State Championship. There could be no better stage for the final showdown than a National Championship race. DiCola is coming off a fourth-place finish at the Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championship last weekend, where he ran 15:13.20. Time will tell if RunningLane added to DiCola's post-season momentum, which has been rebuilding since states. Griffith opted to withdraw from RunningLane after his win at the Champs Northeast Regional.
It will be exhilarating to see which of the two can come out on top at Champs, and they are both capable of contending for national glory.
We can't count out Ryan Pajak (Ringgold). The 7th place finisher at the regional meet is having an impressive junior season. After running 14:58.40 at Paul Short and taking 2nd at the PIAA 2A State Championship, Pajak is gaining the momentum he needs to cap off the season with a solid national performance.
Just behind Pajak at regionals was Colin Whitaker (Lampeter Strasburg), also a junior. Whitaker finished 8th at the regional meet after having an excellent season. Keep an eye on him as a potential for mixing things up with the best in the country.
Timothy Roden (Central Dauphin) is the final runner to represent PA on Saturday. Roden is a wild card with a lot of potential for a quality finish despite the deep pool of runners. After a 61st-place finish at the PIAA 3A State Championship, it was encouraging to see him bounce back and finish 10th at the regional meet.