Glad my record stands another day. Some people need be reminded how historic and difficult Mt SAC really is.



Â— Austin Tamagno (@AustinTamagno) October 24, 2015

There is no better reward for the talented few who can call themselves Â“eliteÂ” than a spot at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships. A trip to sunny San Diego is always an attractive pull, but even better is the chance to join prep immortality by winning at Balboa Park. The 65Â° and sunny is just an added bonus.There is no greater title in high school cross country than Â“Foot Locker champion,Â” as it remains the de facto identifier of the best two runners of any given year. Even as NXN continues to draw more and more talent annually, that fact has generally endured.On Saturday, two athletes will put their names in the rafters next to greats like Dathan Ritzenhein and Jordan Hasay as champions of this historic race, all while fans across the nation tune in for a glimpse at the future superstars of the sport. Foot Locker (and NXN) is like the McDonaldÂ’s All-American gameÂ— itÂ’s product placement overload, but if you can get past that, these kids are really fun to watch!HereÂ’s whatÂ’s going down this Saturday in the boys' race:One word comes to mind while watching Drew Hunter run: poise. The dude just looks in control at all times. Never was that on better display than the Brooks 2-mile in June, the site of HunterÂ’s arrival as the current King of High School Running. A 4:14 final 1600m with a 55-second last lap all while beating one of the greatest prep runners in history takes poise, and for Hunter, his victory there gave us an inkling of his rare intangibles.Quickly, here are Drew HunterÂ’s intangibles, ranked:1. Speed- 4:022. Strength- 8:423. Scalps- Grant Fisher (x2)48. Fist pump game- IÂ’m expecting a good one after that Brooks PR celebration:The Seattle stunner was a coming-of-age that felt premature considering that Grant Fisher was still in high school. Like, Â“cÂ’mon dude wait your turn, this is GrantÂ’s time to shine!Â” But then just as quickly, Â“wow that Hunter kid is something special.Â” ThatÂ’s how I felt watching the then-junior drop the sub-4:00 miler in the final stretchÂ— a heavy dose of disbelief mixed with excitement knowing that a full year of high school was yet to come for an athlete with so much entertainment value.He already figured to be the favorite coming off Foot Locker 2014 as the top returner (4th), but his beating of Fisher (twice!) put him in another category altogether. Remember, Fisher was thought to be unbeatable at that point, having run 3:59 and winning his second Dream Mile crown all in the span of nine days. Hunter put that line of thinking to rest, and subsequently, positioned himself as the mega-favorite with a return to San Diego still some five months away at that point. There are favorites, and then there are mega-favoritesÂ— learn your categories, people! It also doesnÂ’t hurt that heÂ’s the only guy coming back from last yearÂ’s top 10.And of course, the senior from Virginia has been just as beastly as advertised during the 2015 cross country season. There was the 14:20 5K in October, that was nice, and oh, whatÂ’s this? A 14:26 course record at FL South after it had been lengthened by 70m? Those performances shine even brighter when you realize they were both solo efforts throughout. He won the South by 33 seconds for crying out loud. We donÂ’t even fully know how good this kid is yet, and that should be terrifying for the 39 other dudes trying to stop him.Of course, HunterÂ’s track pedigree and his tendency to bust it from the gun makes you wonder how fast this one could go on Saturday. Based on those aforementioned performances this season, I gotta think that sub-14:50 is in the cards, which has only been done five times at Balboa in the 29 years that the meet has been held in San Diego. ThatÂ’s assuming, however, that Hunter makes it fast, but given that heÂ’s so tremendously favored, I could see him making it hot from the gun to shake off the pretenders early.From my vantage point, it will take a colossal upset (way bigger than his defeat of Fisher) for Drew Hunter to not become Drew Hunter, 2015 Foot Locker champion. ItÂ’s possible, but it will take both an off day for him, and the race-of-a-lifetime from one of his few challengers to keep a guy with a 4:02/8:42 stat sheet from San Diego glory.But on we go to said challengersÂ…Phillip Rocha has turned into the brash star we didnÂ’t even know we needed, but are so glad we have. Even though his comments that the 14:23 Mt. SAC course record was Â“softÂ” Â— this after coming up a tick short of it with his 14:24Â— were blown entirely out of proportion , the damage had been done. In the span of one Flotrack interview, the world was introduced to Phillip Rocha, content magic man.The comment section of the video featured endless hot takes that made for great Saturday afternoon reading. The social media brigade struck up the band, and somehow Rocha put the blame on us as he was getting torched. Oh, and the guy who holds the course record, Austin Tamagno, flashed his subtweet game.Overall, it was a great day to be a high school distance running fan.But his free-speaking tendencies aside, Rocha has walked the walk that his talk has talked this season. The Arcadia senior matched alum and current Colorado All-American Ammar Moussa by winning his second straight CIF D1 title on November 28th, the fastest across all divisions and just a hair faster than Moussa ran on the same course his senior year. He took an undefeated record into last weekendÂ’s Foot Locker West regional, which yes, he lost to Garek Bielaczyc, but IÂ’m choosing to believe he was taking it easy knowing that Nationals was just a week away.The Mt. SAC performance to me is the greatest indication of what Rocha is capable of this weekend. Tamagno ran a similar time last year and went on to place fifth in San Diego in a much more competitive year, so Rocha should gain confidence from that. Saving a bit of himself at Foot Locker West-- if that's what he did-- could prove to be very wise.Arcadia's Phillip RochaThe problem that Rocha faces against Hunter is two-fold. One, he simply cannot match the future Oregon Duck in speed, at least on paper. His track PRs of 4:14/8:59 tell me that even if he can hang with Hunter through say, 1Â½- 2-milesÂ— no small task since our favorite cracked off a 4:26 opening mile at FL SouthÂ— heÂ’s just not likely to have the gear to hang on once Hunter really starts to move at the end. Two, this will be his first time running Foot Locker, which isnÂ’t a factor to be overlooked. Already giving up tons of speed to Hunter, no experience will make putting together a strategy to overcome that even more tricky.I mentioned Garek Bielaczyc of Utah earlier (IÂ’ll refer to him as Â“GBÂ” from here on), and he enters this weekend as a bit of a wildcard despite being the lone man to beat Rocha in 2015. See, GB didnÂ’t even qualify to NXN out of the Southwest regional, finishing eighth and a staggering 24 seconds behind eventual NXN champ Casey Clinger. This is concerning.As much as I want to believe that GBÂ’s win last Saturday was the true measure of his stock ahead of this championship, I donÂ’t like my Foot Locker contenders doing things like failing to qualify for the other championship. ItÂ’s way too big of a red flag, not to mention that he was just 27th in San Diego last year.One last name to keep an eye on is the #2 returner from 2014, IndianaÂ’s Ben Veatch. Like Rocha and GB, heÂ’ll enter Foot Locker with a race on his legs from just a week prior, another advantage yielded to Hunter. But Veatch has been here beforeÂ— he was 14th last yearÂ— and heÂ’s coming off a near victory at NXN that saw him come up just 1.6 seconds short of Casey Clinger.Again, like Rocha and GB, heÂ’s giving up way too much speed to Hunter for me to even entertain the thought of an upset brewing, but having already run a great race last weekend, Veatch has absolutely nothing to lose on Saturday. That added to his solid outing last time he raced at Balboa could mean a runner-up finish for the second straight week.