The 20th NIKE Cross Nationals took place on December 6, 2025. The site was Glendoveer Golf Course, home of NXN for more than a decade.
NXN enthusiasts sometimes like to debate which course is better, Portland Meadows Old Course (a horse track) or Glendover Golf Course.
Suffice it to say, for someone who has witnessed 17 of the 20 events, each site has had its own iconic races and challenging aspects of the cross country season finale in early December in Portland, Oregon.
There was snow, there was rain, there was torrential rain, there was mud, mud and more mud.
Athletes who run 5k on NXN courses seem to excel regardless of the weather.
The boys and girls who compete at NXN are some of the best individuals and best teams in this great high school sport of cross country.
Since 1971, the National Federation of High School Sports (NFHS) has tracked sports participation in high schools. In 2025, 556,000 boys and girls across all 50 states competed in cross country. That’s an approximate number. It is a record turnout for sports. Add track and field (1.1 million) and you have 1.656 million boys and girls competing in track and field (cross country, track and field, outdoor track and field).
NXN has brought recognition to the team aspect of cross country like no other event. While Foot Locker (cancelled in 2025 and taken over by Brooks) celebrated the individual cross-country athlete with nominal team competition, NIKE participated in the team competition and combined 31 of the nation’s best teams with the best individuals.
NXN was born from the NIKE Border Clash, which was held between 1999 and 2018. NIKE Border Clash was the brainchild of then-NIKE employees John Truax, a friend of footwear, and Josh Rowe, a friend of sports marketing. They convinced the top reps that what NIKE needed to do was sponsor a race between the top 40 boys and the top 40 girls from Oregon and Washington to brag about who the best runners in the Pacific Northwest were.
In 2005, NIKE started NXN after interacting with the charming people at Foot Locker. Foot Locker has had a cross-country streak dating back to 1979 and has had nearly every running shoe company as a sponsor over the years. Foot Locker pissed off literally every shoe brand to the point that they quit after 3 years. NIKE took it one step further, they launched their National Champions, the NIKE Cross Nationals.
From the very beginning, NXN was unique. The celebration of the teams, the amount of swag, the NIKE athletes showing up to cheer, encourage and entertain the athletes made it different. The truth is, when NIKE sets its mind to doing something, it does it first class.
Regional qualifiers are great in themselves. This writer went to NXR Southwest where 3,500 runners competed and the Swoosh TC athletes encouraged the runners to compete well. One NXR event had 9,000 runners. So to say there’s excitement for the NXR and NXN is an understatement.
The Glendoveer course is tough. High grass, hard footing, some hills and twists all keep the event entertaining in front of around five thousand fans. The production values ​​of the streaming show by Runnerspace.com make this streaming event second to none. NIKE and Runnerspace are pulling out all the stops.
NIKE not only brings the best teams, but also the best individuals. An example was Jackson Spencer, who was the #1 ranked Boys Cross Country athlete in the country. He was quite impressive in his win at NXR Southweat where he ran 14:31 on a very flat course (Jackson ran 14:16 for the 5000m). Top guys were Calvin Seitz, MW winner, Lucas Tanner, Wisconsin’s lone qualifier, among others.
On the girl’s side, nearly all of the top-ranked girls runners competed in Glendover, with Abby Ritzenhein, Jaelyn Williams, Natasha Dudek, Blair Bartlett among the athletes to watch.
This is the secret of the championship race.
