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DyeStat.com – News – Shock and Awe: Inside the 2008 Fayetteville-Manlius Team Video

DyeStat.com - News - Shock and Awe: Inside the 2008 Fayetteville-Manlius Team Video

Excerpt From ‘Amazing Racers’ Illustrates Shake-Up Moment In Early Days Of NXN

By Marc Bloom for DyeStat

With Nike Cross Nationals resuming this Saturday in Portland, Ore., after a two-year COVID caused absence, DyeStat is presenting an iconic moment of remembrance: the 2008 Fayetteville-Manlius girls’ team video, a stunning symbol of the upstate New York school’s 15-year domination. It was shown at that weekend’s Opening Ceremonies on the Nike campus; all teams were asked to contribute short footage depicting their running ethos.

As a companion, we provide an excerpt from Marc Bloom’s award-winning 2019 book about F-M, “Amazing Racers, The Story of America’s Greatest Running Team And Its Revolutionary Coach.” The excerpt discusses the video and how it came together.

NXN started in 2004. From 2006 through 2017, Fayetteville girls won 11 of the 12 championships, most by huge margins, placing second once, while taking fourth in 2018 and seventh in 2019. The F-M boys, in 14 NXN appearances in 16 years, placed second in ‘04, third in ‘05, fourth in ‘13 and second in ‘17. The boys won in 2014 as F-M swept the boys and girls team championships.

Published by Pegasus Books. Copyright Marc Bloom. Reprinted with permission. The book can be purchased HERE.

 

Chapter 13 – Fits Over F-M Footage (Page 164)

If rival coaches were hanging pictures of the Fayetteville-Manlius girls in their school locker rooms like WANTED posters displayed on a post office wall, there was not much reason for the team to try and amass even more of a psychological edge for the national championships. Or was there?

It was the fifth year of Nike Cross Nationals, and event organizers continued tinkering with their formula, seeking enhancements on and off the racecourse. In 2008, adding to a dramatic change the previous year of regional qualifying meets, NXN decided to invite the nation’s top individual competitors to go along with team entires that had defined the meet since 2004. The top five “individual” boys and girls from each of the nine regions — those not among the top five as members of qualifying teams — would come to Portland on the same basis as the teams, with all expenses paid, free gear, and immersion in a weekend of fanfare on the Nike campus. 

The additional forty-five boys and forty-five girls would be added to the tam fields, so that each race would now have 199 runners. The competition would be modeled after the NCAA championships, Nike’s…

CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at RunnerSpace News…