By Michele Robertson
Southwest Region cross-country athletes, including a local team from the Cavern City Aces, set a record for entries in the Nike Cross Regionals (NXR) on Saturday, November 23, in Mesa, AZ.
NXR is open to all high school cross-country runners and area clubs. Cavern City Aces Coach Michael Sims participated in the Citizens Race, while athletes Ali Aguilar, Kaitlyn Robertson, and Rex Reynolds each competed in the Medium Open 1 races.
There are nine regions in the USA for NXR, with New Mexico being in the Southwest Region, along with Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. This year, the Southwest Region set a new record for athletes competing at a regional competition with 4,400 runners.
NXR 2024 held 16 races for the day, many of which consisted of multiple waves of runners. The Citizens Race Coach Sims participated in broke a record with 240 entries. His time was 16:56. Aguliar and Robertson competed in the Girls’ Medium Open 1, the first of two waves for the medium open. A total of 203 girls competed in the first wave, with another 213 in the second wave. Aguliar’s time was 22:37, and Robertson’s time was 22:38. Reynolds ran in the Boys’ Medium Open 1, which had 281 runners; the second wave had 303 runners. Reynolds’ time was 17:55.
“It was definitely exciting seeing the club perform in their first official meet. I really think this meet paved the way for future meets for the club, as well as further developing the future of Carlsbad distance running. My hope is to bring a full boys’ and girls’ team next year and eventually work our way up to the championship race in the next few years,” Sims said.
Comments