Nobody is gunning for second place in the 2026 Brooks XC Championship, but that doesn’t mean anything less than the top spot isn’t an achievement. There is a long history of runners-up blossoming into high-level collegiate and professional runners.
The National High School Cross Country Championships may more frequently provide launching pads for the winners, there are several runners-up who have forged their own path to success after their high school days.
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Meb Keflezighi, 1993, California
Sometimes in high school that guy you beat goes on to become a successful accountant or perhaps a car salesman. Other times, that runner-up would later become one of the United States’ most dominant distance athletes of all time. Meb Keflezighi is the latter.
Finishing in second at the 1993 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, Keflezighi stayed close to home to attend UCLA, where he won the 1997 NCAA cross-country individual championship and titles in the indoor 5,000m and outdoor 5,000m.
Keflezighi was born in Ethiopia, but he represented the United States in four separate Olympic Games, culminating in a silver medal at the 2004 Games’ marathon. He also was a successful marathoner, winning the 2009 New York City Marathon and the 2014 Boston Marathon to be the first American man to win each race since 1982 and 1983, respectively.
Louis Luchini, 1998, Maine
In 1998, Jorge Torres put up a 15:16.4 to clinch the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship, but Ellsworth, Maine’s, pride and joy Louis Luchini was seconds behind with a 15:23.8. While he wasn’t able to clinch a National High School Cross Country Championship in his career, he went on to collegiate and professional success.
Luchini went all the way across the country to the West Coast, where he matriculated at Stanford University. For the Cardinal, he became a star, earning 11 All-American nods. He was the NCAA outdoor 5,000m runner-up, but he won two team cross country titles in 2002 and 2003. He also held Stanford’s 5,000m record with a 3:25.19.
After his time in college came to a close, Luchini continued running professionally, signing with Nike and running with the Oregon Track Club. He competed twice in the U.S. Olympic Trials and twice finished fifth in the U.S. Outdoor National Championships. He was inducted into the Maine Running Hall Of Fame in 2020 and returned to where it all began to become the head coach of Ellsworth High School.
Galen Rupp, 2003, Oregon
Out of West Central Catholic High School in Oregon, Galen Rupp didn’t quite have the pace to beat Matthew Withrow, finishing as the runner-up by two seconds to lose out on the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship.
Rupp didn’t have to leave his home state for college, instead running for the Oregon Ducks until 2009. During this time, Rupp was a five-time individual NCAA Champion before wrapping up his time with the Ducks by winning the inaugural Bowerman Award.
His professional career started while he was still in college, where he competed in his first of four Summer Olympic Games. In 2012, he won the Olympic silver medal in the 10,000m and won the bronze in the next cycle. If he hadn’t accomplished enough to put him among the hallowed names in American track and field, he tacked on a 2017 Chicago Marathon win, the first American to do so since 2002.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Rupp set the American Masters Record in the Marathon. At 40-years-old, he ran 2:06:55 for 11th overall.
Other Notables
- Donald Sage
- Amy Yoder Begley
- Alan Webb
- Lauren Fleshman
FloTrack Archived Footage
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