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BLUE CARPET

Since the beginning of the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, no female runner has ever managed to win the high school championship and go on to win an NCAA cross country title. It has become what is known as the "Foot Locker curse,” and it has lasted since the beginning of the women’s meet in 1981. 

 

2015 has strong potential for this curse to be broken as four Foot Locker Champions, Molly Seidel, Aisling Cuffe, Anna Rohrer, and Tessa Barrett are entered in the race. Two of the four, Seidel and Cuffe stand as top contenders for an NCAA title this Saturday. 

 

Seidel, now Notre Dame’s front-runner, emerged on the running scene from an early age, claiming four cross country state titles in her native Wisconsin. She and three-time Olympian Suzy Favor-Hamilton are the only female runners to accomplish the feat in that state. In her senior year, Seidel claimed the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship title in an exciting battle against now-Michigan All American Erin Finn. 

 

With each NCAA Cross Country Championship, Seidel has made vast improvements. As a freshman, she finished 19th in the NCAA Great Lakes Region and 217th at the NCAA Championships. Her sophomore year, she finished 171st in Terre Haute. In 2014 she finished fourth at the NCAA regional and a breakthrough 19th-place at the NCAA Championships, her first All American honor of her career.  

 

Almost a year to the day, Seidel is preparing for her final NCAA cross country performance, a race which she is currently ranked No. 2 in the country. 

 

Seidel has also been accompanied by a fellow Foot Locker Champion in freshman Anna Rohrer who has been training alongside Seidel since joining the Fighting Irish in the fall. The duo have accomplished a huge amount of success this season, culminating with a 1-2 finish at both the ACC Championships and the NCAA Great Lakes Championships. 

 

On the other side of the country, Stanford carries a front-runner and NCAA title contender in Aisling Cuffe, another winner of the competitive high school championship race. 

Like Seidel, Cuffe has had her fair share of ups and downs during her running career.

 

While attending high school in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, Cuffe earned two USATF Junior 5K Championship titles, seven New York state titles, the 2011 USATF Junior Cross Country Championship title, and the New Balance Indoor 2 mile title. 

Her 2010 Foot Locker victory was won decisively by a whopping 34 seconds over runner-up Rachel Johnson, who now runs professionally for Asics. 

 

Cuffe began her career at Stanford in thrilling fashion, beginning with an indoor season that saw her first All American (second team) honor while finishing 14th in the 3K. She rolled into the 2012 cross country season with a 21st place finish at the NCAA Championships, a first team All American honor, and carried the momentum into the 2013 track season where she finished 13th in the 5K. But it wasn’t until the 2013 cross country season when Cuffe emerged as an NCAA-title contender as the Cardinal finished fourth in Terre Haute. 

The 2014 track season was just as monumental as Cuffe ran her way to a Pac-12 and school record 5K time of 15:11 at the Payton Jordan Invitational. The performance catapulted her as the third-fastest female in collegiate history and the second-fastest American collegian. She continued her season all the way to the NCAA Championships where she narrowly missed an NCAA title in the 5K. She was out-kicked by Marielle Hall of Texas. 

 

Fall of 2014 proved to be very difficult for Cuffe who suffered from several injuries that sidelined her from an entire year of competition. She had a sacral stress fracture in August of 2014 and suffered from several other minor injuries later that winter. In an attempt to focus on a full and healthy recovery, Head Coach Chris Miltenberg held her out for an entire year. 

 

It wasn’t until September 2015 when now fifth-year Cuffe was able to return to competition healthy again. She reminded the NCAA of her fierce competitive spirit at the Washington Invitational, where she claimed the individual title against stiff Pac-12 competition. She continued her winning streak at the Pac-12 Championships where she claimed another conference title. Coach Miltenberg has been cautious with Cuffe, holding her out for both the Pre-National Invitational and the NCAA West Region Championships. Stanford successfully qualified without their front-runner, where they stand at No. 7 in the country. Cuffe is currently ranked No. 4 in the country. 

 

Saturday marks the final and best opportunity for both Seidel and Cuffe to claim the elusive NCAA cross country title. Both runners are in peak condition, wise with NCAA Championship experience and have nothing left to lose. 

 

Can the long-standing “Foot Locker curse” finally come to an end? Time will tell Saturday morning on the starting line in Louisville.