LIVE WEBCAST
Its back! Nike Cross Nationals is back and with it a trio of NH runners are competing by virtue of their top 5 finishes at Nike
Cross Regionals last weekend. Gilford’s Patrick Gandini, Coe-Brown’s Aidan Cox, and PEA’s Byron Grevious will be representing the Geanite State when they toe the line at 2:35 EST on Saturday. There is a free webcast, so tune in and support.
The trio are already in Oregon, so please check out our Instagram (@nhxctf) and our YouTube Channel to see up to date posts and short videos chronicling their time there. They experienced a running tour of Nike World Headquarters on Thursday followed by course tours today (Friday). Of course the race is Saturday and how will the three fare? Well looking at the history of NXN, individual qualifiers tend do quite well. This coupled with the fact, the 2022 NXN may be the deepest in quite some time, look for Cox, Gandini and Grevious to possibly run their fastest races of the season.
Grevious was of course 2nd place at NXR Northeast. He has certainly flown under the radar as PEA competes in a separate league than the NHIAA, but we get to see plenty of PEA during the season as both Grevious and PEA won the Black Bear Invite this season. We especially get to run with them during indoors as they host several meets for the Winter Track League. With all this, we already know he is the real deal and will certainly compete for All-American status come Saturday.
Not flying under the radar is Gilford’s Patrick Gandini who has had quite the swan song for a senior cross country season. He continued to dominate D3 claiming yet another state title. He backed that up with winning the MOCs in what was likely the most exciting race of the NH season outleaning D2 champ Birhanu Harriman (Lebanon). While Harriman was top NH finisher at New Englands, Gandini perhaps had his best race of his life to qualify at NXR by grabbing the final 5th place qualifying slot! He certainly has nothing to lose on Saturday and can go for broke!
Cox seems to be rounding into top form just in time for Nike Cross Nationals. While an ill-timed soft tissue strain hampered him during the local championship season, he bounced back with his typical give-it-all-you-got effort at Nike Cross Northeast Regional last weekend. Yes he was third, but by only 4 seconds and he traded moves back and forth with champ Devan Kipyego. With one more week of progression, look for Cox to join the other top runners in the nation in the front pack tomorrow.
We were lucky enough to catch up with all 3 at NXN for pre race interviews! Good luck fellas!!
One Response
Go get em boys!