By Michael Newman

TFX National Director

[email protected]

Notes – Great Oak jumped ahead of Claremont as the two California schools are in top two spots on the national list. Great Oak scored 64 points to win by over 100 points ahead of St. Francis (Sacramento) behind the individual win from Tori Gaitan. Fatima Cortes (6^th) and Arianna Griffiths (7^th) finishing in the top 10 also helped the Wolfpack in their win.

Claremont took the top spot from Great Oak two weeks ago in their win at the Stanford Invitational on September 29. Their Wolfpack will get tested this weekend as they travel east to compete in the Manhattan Invitational on Saturday. The big news from the Manhattan meet is that defending national champion Fayetteville-Manlius will not compete in the Eastern States Championship race at Van Cortlandt Park but the Varsity B race in this meet. We will get a better idea what the Hornets have. FM did defeat Liverpool in a dual meet over a week ago.

Naperville North and Yorkville will not face each other until the Illinois IHSA State Meet on November 3. The two schools faced each other twice in a span of a week with Yorkville edging Naperville North at the Roy Griak Invitational on September 29. On October 3, Naperville North had a 10-point edge in winning the Naperville Twilight Invitational. Both schools enter their conference meets this weekend as the big favorites. They are a solid 3-4 in the national list.

The Midwest Region looks to be the strongest of all the nine Nike Cross Regionals with six schools ranked in the top 17. The Northeast is the only region not to have a team in the top 35 this week. West Chester Henderson PA and Ridgeview NJ, who was the top team at the Shores Coaches Invitational, are the top two teams in that region. California is still strong with seven schools listed in the top 35.