Watch Trotter’s 2001 win
Watch Bei’s 2000 win
Watch Stamp’s 1994 win
So sad to see this.
Story: Foot Locker Cross Country Championships Officially Concludes
Tiny little Redwood Empire had an amazing history at this National Championship.
Besides three national champions between 1994 and 2001 we actually had two girls in the top seven (1998 & 2000) in the same year.
Here is a look at how our girls have done.
1994 Julia Stamps, Santa Rosa 1st, won by 31 seconds.
1997 Sara Bei, Montgomery 10th
1997 Trina Cox, Santa Rosa 24th
1998 Sara Bei, Montgomery 3rd
1998 Trina Cox, Santa Rosa 6th
2000 Sara Bei, Montgomery 1st, course record, story
2000 Amber Trotter, Ukiah 7th
2001 Amber Trotter, Ukiah 1st, course record, won by 40 seconds. story
2007 Sarah Sumpter, Healdsburg 22nd
2008 Jacque Taylor, Casa Grande 30th
2009 Julie Nacouzi, Montgomery 25th
2009 Jacque Taylor, Casa Grande 40th
2010 Julie Nacouzi, Montgomery 3rd
In 2004 Nike created their own nationals, which over time attracted more and more of the top runners.
Nike Cross Nationals
2022 Hanne Thomsen, Montgomery 16th Nike Cross Nationals
2023 Hanne Thomsen, Montgomery 24th Nike Cross Nationals
2024 Hanne Thomsen, Montgomery 33rd Nike Cross Nationals
Fastest times ever run at Footlocker Nationals Year Time Athlete Gr High school City St Course 2001 16:24 Amber Trotter 12 Ukiah Redwood Valley CA Orlando, FL 1990 16:39 Melody Fairchild 12 Boulder Boulder CO San Diego, CA 1981 16:40a Connie Robinson 12 Cincinnati OH Orlando, FL 1994 16:41b Julia Stamps 10 Santa Rosa Santa Rosa CA San Diego, CA 1985 16:43 Erin Keogh 11 Langley McLean VA San Diego, CA 1983 16:43 Janet Smith 12 Edison NJ San Diego, CA 2019 16:45 Zofia Dudek 12 Ann Arbor Pioneer Ann Arbor MI San Diego, CA 2019 16:47 Marlee Starliper 12 Northern York Wellsville PA San Diego, CA 1984 16:48 Cathy Schiro 12 Dover NH San Diego, CA 2022 16:50 Karrie Baloga 12 Cornwall Central New Windsor NY San Diego, CA 2023 16:51 Elizabeth Leachman 12 Boerne Champion Boerne TX San Diego, CA 2010 16:53 Aisling Cuffe 12 Cornwall Central Cornwall-on-Hudson NY San Diego, CA 2000 16:55c Sara Bei 12 Montgomery Santa Rosa CA Orlando, FL a-different course from 2000. b-missed CR by 2 seconds. c-set CR that Trotter broke. California is the only state that has had more than two champions who ran one of the 13 fastest times. All three of those runners were from our North Bay League. Two of those runners were from the city of Santa Rosa. Of the two fastest times from both the San Diego course and the Orlando course the NBL produced two of the four times. The three fastest times ever run by girls from the west team were all from the North Bay League.
Elsie Allen’s Celedonio Rodriguez has gotten our boys represented with his 18th place finish in 1998.
Balboa Park in San Diego has served as the most frequent venue for the national championships. The course is winded in a figure-8 fashion through the Morley Field portion of the nearly 5.0 km² park. There is no shortage of hills and mounds, which makes this course the definitive cross country course. (Although the San Diego venue has always been Balboa Park, the Championships in 1979 and 1980 were run on a course other than Morley Field—a course on the western edge of Balboa Park.)
The Orlando course was extremely flat, but deceivingly slow in terms of runners’ times. Patches of grass and sand were scattered throughout the flat, 5,000m course.