Nike XC Town Twilight – News

Sunday, Sept 17, 2023

Terre Haute, IN– 2,000 plus athletes from ten states are expected at the 2023 Nike XC Town Twilight at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country course, host of 15 national championships and this year’s IHSAA State and NXR Midwest Regional Cross Country Championships.  The meet is conducted under the auspices of Cross Country Town USA, the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation (NSAF), the Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Terre Haute South Vigo High School.

In the USA Boys Race of Champions, #11 Jesuit (New Orleans, LA), #22 Noblesville(IN), and honorable mentions South(Plainfield, IL), North(Liberty, MO), Zionsville Community(Zionsville, IL), The Bolles School(Jacksonville, FL), and Lyons(LaGrange, IL) will square off in an exciting duel of some of the nation’s best teams. Upstarts North (Bloomington, IN), Trinity (Louisville, KY), Center Grove (Greenwood, IN), Mason (OH), Pike (Indianapolis, IN), Evansville (IL), St. Xavier (Cincinnati, OH), and Scioto (Dublin, OH) are several teams which will be looking to improve their status and test themselves on the course that will serve as the qualifier for NXR Nationals on Saturday, November 11, 2023.

Last year, Jesuit came away with a 97-106 win without two of their top two runners. This year, they opened with a second place finish to Belen Jesuit (Miami, FL) 73-124 at the Southern Showcase in Huntsville, AL on September 16. Brady Mullen, Leland Crawford, Lucas Sampedro, and Brady Monahan return from last year’s team to help defend the title. Michael Vocke, the 5A state 1600m champion sat out last year’s race and is in the lineup for this year as well as Joe Accardo and Josh Quintana who have run 16:05.28 or better this year.

South (Plainfield, IL) and Noblesville (IN) finished third and fourth last year and come in with strong teams.

Noblesville will counter with veterans Caden Click, Jack Strong, Sam Rinker, Alec Moor, Ronnie Neal, and John Libs. South will have a top six who have run bests of 16:10.34 or faster. They are led by Camyn Viger, a 4:10.75 miler and state 1600m runner-up, Dylan Maloney,  Riley Fink, Joaquin DeAlba , Alex Batsala, and Dylan Burturusis. Toss in Cole Maranowicz and Tyler Miller, both sub 16:30 to shore up their pack.

In the boy’s race, 10 runners with best of 15:20 or faster for 5k will tackle the course. The top returnee from last year’s race is Jesuit’s Brady Mullen who finished fourth with a 15:04. The next best returnees  are Camyn…