on-site coverage by John & Donna Dye, Rich Gonzalez, Steve Underwood, and the NTN regional editors.

Qualifying for Foot Locker at NTN
the meet within the meet

by John Dye

PORTLAND 11/30/04 -- A meet within the meet at Portland Meadows Saturday will be individuals vying to qualify for the Foot Locker national finals a week later in San Diego. Some alternates at the Foot Locker regionals held Nov. 27 (Northeast, South and Midwest) will be very interested observors from a distance.

The first two finishers at NTN from Foot Locker regions will be awarded a slot at Foot Locker national finals. However, if they have already qualified at a Foot Locker regional, the slot will be awarded to an alternate in that region (9th and 10th place finishers). Thus, for example, if Midwest Foot Locker champ Ramsey Kavan is 1-2 at Portland among runners from the Foot Locker Midwest.

The Foot Locker West regional is being held at Mt. SAC, Walnut CA, the same day as NTN in Portland, so there will be eight qualifiers from Mt. SAC plus two from Portland.

As you may have figured out by now, the Foot Locker finals field expands from 32 to 40, with 10 from each region.

The chart below shows which Foot Locker qualifiers are running at Portland and who are the other top individuals at Portland in contention for the two Foot Locker qualifying slots.

There are actually only three regions offering a second chance for Foot Locker alternates, as the nine runners at NTN who have already qualified for Foot Locker finals come from the Midwest boys, Northeast girls, and Midwest girls.

• Midwest Boys - Robert Bedsole, Hoover AL qualified for San Diego with a 7th in the South Regional and he is probably the leading individual at Portland among the four South region teams. Foot Locker South alternate Sandy Roberts NC is rooting for Bedsole to go 1-2 in Portland.
• Northeast Girls - Saratoga placed a record four girls into the Foot Locker finals and they should be favored to go 1-2 in Portland, with Roxbury NJ and Bethlehem NY the only other Foot Locker Northeast teams entered.
• Midwest Girls - Four girls who qualified for Foot Locker finals in Wisconsin last Saturday (Ramsay Kavan, Alison Eckert, Katelyn Kaltenbach and Keara Sammons) will be in Portland with their teams and these four girls are strong candidates to go 1-2 among Foot Locker Midwest girls at NTN, freeing up Foot Locker finals slots for both Midwest alternates, Michiganders Rebekah Smeltzer and Molly Waterhouse. There are other strong runners who could crack the top 2 and earn their own ticket to San Diego -- 2003 finalist Morgan Schulz of Smoky Hill Aurora CO, Krista Eckert SD, Ohio Div 1 runner-up Christy Titus of Bowling Green

Two strong runners on NTN teams -- Sean McNamara of York IL and Yahya Iman of Marshall MN -- took a risk by skipping the Foot Locker Midwest regional. They are hoping someone else, such as Tucker Weems of Shawnee Mission Northwest KS, doesn't get into the top two at Portland.

Chart prepared by Jim Spier and John Dye.
Individuals in bold face have already qualified for Foot Locker finals.

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