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As the decade draws to a close, DyeStat ESPN RISE is presenting a series of All-Decade awards in the sports of high school cross country and track and field. Selections to the All-Decade Cross Country team were made by the DyeStat editorial team, based on performances beween the fall of 2000 and the fall of 2009. Athletes were named to the team based on their body of cross country work during those years. Track marks and performances, or post-HS success and accomplishments, were not considered-- simply what an athlete accomplished in the sport of cross country (including USATF Jr XC and World XC) during their high school career.
Photos above by Vic Sailer, PhotoRun
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Ritz runs away with it
Rockford MI star leads the DyeStat All-Decade Boys Cross Country team
by Dave Devine and Steve Underwood
| Dathan Ritzenhein | Athlete of the Decade
Class of 2001, Rockford (Rockford MI)
Fans following the 2000 Foot Locker Finals, both in person at Walt Disney World’s Oak Trail Golf Course and from online and afar, were giddy with expectation. It was to be the battle of the “Big Three” prep distance running legends and future Olympians Dathan Ritzenhein, Alan Webb and Ryan Hall, athletes who were the crest of a wave of the revival in the sport.
“Ritz” was the defending national champ, Webb had set a course record at Foot Locker South and would months later destroy the prep mile record, and Hall would also scare the four-minute mile barrier while putting up an impressive list of credentials.
 Ritz, a senior from Rockford (Rockford, Mich.), coached by Brad Prins, was the favorite and fans were expecting epic performances, wanting Ritz’s course record from 1999 to go down. But it was a sweltering day, with temperatures approaching 80 degrees, and a surprisingly modest 4:47 first mile left fans wondering if Ritz – whose running feats had wowed the prep distance world since his sophomore year – would have what it took to repeat and establish his legend in the annuls of the sport.
The answer was not long in coming. He smoked a 4:33 second mile that left the field red-faced and gasping en route to a 20-second win in 14:35 for the 5K distance, with Webb in second-place and Hall finishing third. His thoughts during the final stretch, voiced after recovering from a collapse at the finish which often accompanied his best efforts: “God, this hurts!”
But that ability to endure pain is what endeared Ritz to the sport’s blue-collar fans and still does – and it’s part of what makes him the DyeStat/ESPN RISE Cross-Country Boys Athlete of the Decade.
Although Ritz’s first national cross country title came in 1999, his second was the best such performance of the 2000s – with the margin he had over two of the decade’s other legends, Webb and Hall – and it capped arguably the best season, which was judged above and beyond the careers of any others.
Ritz had a superb campaign that year leading up to the Foot Locker Finals, full of sub-15:00 clockings. At the Portage Invite, he set a course record 14:43 in the snow and cold. At the Michigan Division I state meet, he set a course record of 14:10.40 and won by 55 seconds. He’s the only runner ever to break even 14:50 on the course. He also set another still-standing mark of 14:35 at Foot Locker Midwest.
It was few months after the fall prep season, though, where Ritz had another performance that cemented this honor for him.
At the World Cross Country Championships in Belgium, an event almost always dominated by East African nations like Kenya and Ethiopia, Ritz ground through the mud and rain for a third-place finish in the Junior race (right, IAAF photo) that simply blew away followers of the sport, world-wide.
Ritz was beaten only by runner-up Duncan Lebo of Kenya and future world-record holder and multiple Olympic and World Champion Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia. He was the first American to medal since 1981 and no others have done so since.
After that, Ritz would go on to become an NCAA champion and multiple All-American at the University of Colorado and make the 2004 U.S. Olympic team at 10,000 meters. In 2008, he made the Olympic Marathon team and finished 10th in Beijing.
In 2009, after a coaching change – he’s now coached by Alberto Salazar and resides in Portland, Ore. – he was better than ever, taking sixth in the World Championships at 10k, setting an American Record for 5,000 meters at Zurich (12:56.27) and taking third in the World Championships Half Marathon.
The image of him gaining ground on Zurich 5,000-meter winner Bekele in the final laps reminded fans that eight years after finishing third to the all-time great at the World Junior Cross Country meet, he’s still closing in on the best on the planet.
Matt McCue's Ritz, the Remix - an up-close look at the professional life of the Boys XC Athlete of the Decade
 Chris Solinsky
Class of 2003, Stevens Point Area (Stevens Point WI)
After a third place finish at the Foot Locker National Championships as a junior in 2001, Solinsky dominated the 2002 final in its return to San Diego after a 5-year hiatus in Orlando, Florida. The 14:40 clocking turned in by the Stevens Point senior that day (left, Vic Sailer photo) is the fastest winning time of the decade on the Balboa Park layout, and third fastest mark ever run there. Solinsky was a 5-time NCAA champion and recently a member of the US team at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
Matt Withrow
Class of 2004, VJ Andrew (Tinley Park IL)
The Andrew High senior stunned with a massive mid-race surge at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the fall of 2003, and then soared to the National championship in San Diego two weeks later. His come-from-behind kick with 300 meters remaining in the Balboa Park final has become the stuff of prep distance running legend, as he ran down pre-race favorites Galen Rupp (Central Catholic, Portland OR) and Shadrack Kiptoo (La Cueva, Albuquerque NM) for the 14:55 victory. Withrow went on to qualify for the US Senior Men’s team to compete in the World Cross Country Championships as a true freshman at the University of Wisconsin.
Chris Derrick
Class of 2008, Neuqua Valley (Naperville IL)
Derrick emerged as Illinois’ top harrier with a slate of performances which culminated in a historic state meet run at Detweiler Park, his 13:52 mark considered at least equal to Craig Virgin’s 1973 record on a slightly altered course. With his Neuqua Valley team near the top of the national rankings, Derrick attempted to simultaneously lead them to a Nike Team Nationals title and seek Foot Locker individual glory. The month-long quest began with a decisive NTN Midwest Regional win, then a Foot Locker Midwest 2nd-place finish. He won the NTN individual title in 15:39 while leading his squad to the top of the podium, then a week later was 2nd at the Foot Locker Finals in 14:57 behind Michael Fout’s victory. Derrick now competes for Stanford University and recently placed third at the NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championship.
German Fernandez
Class of 2008, Riverbank (Riverbank CA)
 Fernandez soared to national prominence during an undefeated California cross country season which concluded at the CIF State Meet, where he slashed 14 seconds from Olympian Marc Davis’ Woodward Park record. After winning the Foot Locker West Regional, expectations were high for a triumph at the National Finals, but the Riverbank CA senior managed third on a day when Michael Fout took the win. Fernandez wouldn’t lose again on US soil, winning the USATF Junior Cross Country Championships, leading the US team in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his 25th place finish, and then embarking on an unforgettable and undefeated outdoor track campaign. At Oklahoma State University, Fernandez has set a World Junior Indoor Mile record and the US Junior record in the outdoor 5000 meter run.
Michael Fout
Class of 2008, LaPorte (LaPorte IN)
Though he ruled The Hoosier State during his senior year, many did not consider Fout a serious national title threat, even after he won the 2007 Foot Locker Midwest Regional in 14:54 over heavily-favored Chris Derrick. But at the Foot Locker National finals, facing one of the best boys fields this decade, the LaPorte senior made a monster move in the final mile no one could match, and sped to a 14:50 clocking for the national title (right, John Nepolitan photo). Saddled with injuries the remainder of his senior year, Fout now competes for Florida State University.
Solomon Haile
Class of 2009, Sherwood (Silver Spring MD)
Despite only competing in the United States for one full academic year, after moving to Maryland from his native Ethiopia, the Sherwood MD senior cemented his all-decade credentials with two major victories in the fall of 2008. At the Manhattan Invitational in New York, Haile blazed a course record 12:06.7 on the venerable Van Cortlandt Park 2.5 mile layout. In the ensuing weeks he went on to dominate his state meet, the Foot Locker Northeast Regional, and the Foot Locker National Championships in San Diego, where he pulled away for a comfortable 15:15 win in the final mile. Haile is now competing for the University of Arkansas.
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