Everybody likes an underdog in sports — the plucky overachiever who punches above their weight class. However, the dark secret is that fans love dominance. The reason stars like Max Verstappen, Novak Djokovic and Michael Phelps — even when they don’t have the charisma of a Michael Jordan — are so revered is because they win. Again and again and again.
And while the 2026 Brooks XC Championships presented by Fleet Feet doesn’t allow for a decade of dominance due to the nature of a high school career, there are a handful of athletes whose success is still felt years later.
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Jordan Hasay, 2005 & 2008, California
Jordan Hasay is not only one of a dozen athletes to have won multiple national titles, but she is the only one to win her Regional Championship all four years of her eligibility. Pair that with accomplishing the feat in a state that’s produced as many stars as California, and you get one of the most venerated runners in High School Cross Country Championship history
Hasay burst onto the scene in 2005, winning the West Region Championship as a freshman at Mission College Preparatory High School. That was just the first feather in her cap, as she followed that up with a win in the national championship later that year. She continued to thrive at the Region Championship level, winning the next three, but didn’t win the national title again until her senior year.
Her win made her the only athlete to win multiple national championships in nonconsecutive years, showcasing the breadth of her success. Hasay’s notoriety earned her national awards and a scholarship to Oregon, where she debuted with a strong Bill Dellinger Invitational.
Elizabeth Leachman, 2023 & 2024, Texas
At every level of distance-running, long-standing times and records are falling as the talent continues to get deeper. That makes Elizabeth Leachman’s repeat championship — the first since 2018 — all the more impressive.
Leachman burst onto the scene in 2023, winning the South Region Championship while representing Samuel V. Champion High School from Boerne, Texas. Leachman parlayed that win with a national title, pushing her lead to 13.8 seconds over the runner-up as she crossed the finish line.
Leachman’s run continued with a 2024 performance that matched her level of ascendancy. She won the South Region Championship again, in what would go on to be four wins in five years for Texas, sending her to Nationals. There, Leachman tore up the competition once more, leaving Victoria Garces in the dust by 8.8 seconds for another win.
Lukas Verzbicas, 2009 & 2010, Illinois
Lukas Verzbicas, who is occasionally cited as an underrated winner of the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, not only won back-to-back national titles, he improved his time on his second go around.
In 2009, Verzbicas won the national championship with a 15:07, pulling away from runner-up Matthew McElroy by nearly 15 seconds. As a junior in 2010, he returned to that national stage in San Diego with the chance to defend his title. The Illinoisan delivered another commanding performance.
Verzbicas crossed the line in 14:59, becoming the third boy in Foot Locker history to win consecutive national championships. He did so against perennial contender Futsum Zeinasellassie, firing away in the last few hundred meters after the pair led the majority of the way.
FloTrack Archived Footage
Video footage from each event will be archived and stored in a video library for FloTrack subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscriptions.
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