Nike Cross Nationals

So, uh, I just had to trust in that, and it, it worked out my senior year, so...

In California growing up, you raced the best of the best teams and, you know, the best teams in the country since you guys were going to the, the top invitationals and then, like, the, the NXN route.

Um, but then college obviously is a different beast.

Can you describe to the listener how much more competitive the NCAA is than high school, even though you did sort of take the most competitive path possible in high school?

That sophomore year-- or freshman year, have a good result, help the team win.

That sophomore year, uh, you don't run the national meet as you took me through.

How much humility does that take as a guy who, um, we gotta remember you were the weird COVID era, but, like, you would've won NXN your senior year.

You won Running Lane, ran a crazy time in the 5K, I think it was like 14:06, where...

Brooks made a big splash on the cross-country scene last fall, helping the Christ School to finish seventh.

at Nike cross nationals.

And with a lot of those guys back, including Brooks on this year's team, the Christ school has big aspirations of chasing after a Nike cross nationals team title, but this show is not learning about the Christ school and the results that they are going to produce on the cross country scene.

No, this is about learning who Brooks is away from running.

So let's tune into this episode of pending ratification with Brooks Barbie.

it'll be a much, much different expectations for this group this year.

Let's reflect on what you guys accomplished last year.

You know, as I said, a bunch of underclassmen going to Nike Cross Nationals.

She's been blessed to get All-American at New Balance Nationals outdoors, New Balance Indoor twice, and attended the Brooks PR invite.

She even placed top five at NXN in the fall.

And the reason I had Emma on the podcast is actually because I was able to give a guest lecture at the University of Colorado Boulder where I met her.

And she's transitioning from a very successful high school career into college.

I've ran a 1618 on the cross country course, but the track is definitely, yeah.

So what was your high school rank coming out of like after your senior year or whatever, like what was the highest rank you had in the nation for cross country or the 5k or whatever?

I think it was fifth and I placed fifth at NXN, but they also placed me fifth, like post season, like rankings and then coming into track season.

I think in the two mile, I might've been like a top 10, somewhere in the top 10.

And I just love the guys that I've been surrounded with the past few years.

when you're running with the guys, you know, training and doing all those kinds of things, is it, was it more like playful banter or what do you guys do to, what did you guys talk about as you're running? Was there, was there already talk about, you know, going to something like NXN, the Nike national, the cross country meet?

Yeah, for sure.

My, so my freshman year, I was very fortunate.

And it always said we were one or two.

So we always thought that was really cool.

But I remember during NXN just watching all the videos and I felt like we should have been there even though we were the fourth place.

best Illinois team.

That really only kind of makes Ridgewood's advantage even more prominent.

I know Cherry Hill East is in the picture there, but I think Ridgewood has a really good shot of making it to NXN, especially considering that they're one of the only few handful of teams that brings back that many scorers, that many runners who have went under 20 minutes.

I think all their top...

All their top five went under 20 minutes at Homedale.

Not like, not like, like, yeah.

Like, but like now we have like the union caps of the world.

Now we have like a team like Ridgewood who can actually, like the fact that we could have two girls teams, NXN, um, you know, and multiple girls compete, you know, like several girls actually go out to Brooks and really compete with the best in the country.

Like, That's amazing.

I don't tell you what's going on.

Yeah, I mean, the ideal here is for you guys to square off at NXN one day like the Harbaugh brothers, and then we can really settle things.

I feel like given your personal histories, Weldon's team would probably win.

Thank you, John.

I-- when I was in high school, I used to make-- Well, when I was coaching high school, I used to make these videos, um, for my team basically, where, you know, three, four-minute videos with music and words on them of just, like, running footage, and it was really, one, to kind of share with them, like, these epic moments in the sport to be like, "Look, you're a part of a badass sport." You know what I mean? Like, this is, this is the sport you wanna be in, and the history and the heritage are amazing, and these are some of the rock stars, and also to serve as, like, motivation.

And one of them was called, uh, The First Gold, which was about Joanie, and, uh, I remember at NXN one year, she was walking down the stairs in, in, uh, at the event, like, the night before the race, and I was like, "Oh, my God.

That's Joan Benoit Samuelson," and I was with the team.

I said, "I'll be right back," and I quickly kind of- And awkwardly approached her.