How Keeney’s National High School Cross Country Championships Began (1979)
1979– The first Kinney National HS X-Country Championships were held at San Diego’s Balboa Park. The first prize winners were Brent Steiner and Ellen Lyon. End at 8:00th In the girls race, it was Leslie Welch (Peabody, MA) who won the 1982 NCAA (Virginia) and USA XC titles. He would win 2th US title in 1986
Former St. John’s and Yale coach Steve Barthold gave some insight into how the event unfolded. “Well, over drinks and Thanksgiving dinner at my house in Long Island in the fall of 1978, my brother-in-law Jack Aneser, the advertising director of The Kinney Shoe Corp., and I talked about running. His brother Rich, also a Kinney employee (and former Princeton 1975 Masback), was also involved in the discussion and helped spark Jack’s interest.
“Kinney was working on a book about running trails all over the United States. We were discussing having a national championship distance run (for HS runners) and if Kinney would be interested in sponsoring it. Jack ran with the idea and Kinney bought it. They hired an advertising team and I worked on the design of campaign meetings.
“Local college coaches helped organize the race, but we also used high school representatives from each area to act as coordinators to make sure we followed all the HS rules. Since there was later some concern about ‘unfair recruiting advantages’ for the college coaches involved, we decided to turn the meetings over to respected HS representatives and it went from there.”
Over the years, the match has taken on various names, most notably Foot Locker, which announced in 2025 that it would no longer sponsor the event. However, it now has a new sponsor and a new name: Brooks XC Championhsips.
Leading finishers
Boys. https://mnpreptrack.com/
Girls. https://mnpreptrack.
Past winners: https://en.wikipedia.
