The Foot Locker National XC Championships have been around since 1979 (41 years) whereas the Nike Cross Nationals have only been around since 2004 (16 years). With two high school national cross country championships, the question remains which championship is more prestigious? Foot Locker has the legacy factor, however NXN has been able to draw not just the top teams in the nation, but top individuals on both the girls and boys side in recent years.

To decide who is currently winning the race for most prestigious championship we decided to look to the NCAA level as the deciding factor. Looking back at the past four NCAA xc championships we analyzed the high school resumes of every top-20 NCAA xc finisher since 2016 (Thanks MileSplit!). We noted if the runner competed at the regional level for Foot Locker or NXN their senior year of high school (junior year if runner was injured). We did this to see where the best NCAA runners decided to compete when in high school. Did they sway towards NXN, Foot Locker, both or neither?

NXN vs Foot Locker Participation Among Top-20 NCAA XC Finishers:

Note: Percentages don't add up to 100%, due to some athletes participating in both NXN and Foot Locker in high school.

The overall conclusion we can draw from the past four years of NCAA cross country is that NXN and Foot Locker are drawing an equal amount of DI NCAA XC talent, with a slight uptick of talent coming from NXN alums in 2019. However, the main take away is that NCAA is still dominated by non-NXN/Foot Locker participates. This is mainly due to the influx of international talent year in and year out.

Raw Data: