(Photo by Rich Cruse/richcruse.com)Triathlon’s reigning Junior World Champion Lukas Verzbicas today announced that he will dedicate himself full time to the sport of triathlon in order to pursue his Olympic dream. (via www.usatriathlon.org)

CHULA VISTA, Calif. — Lukas Verzbicas and Kelly Whitley captured USA Triathlon Junior Elite National titles Saturday while Tamara Gorman successfully defended her Youth Elite title. Sawyer Willingham won the Youth Elite race for the men. (via www.usatriathlon.org)

This country's most famous miler and five-term U.S. Congressman (1996-2006) from Kansas, will have something to say Sunday as the keynote speaker at the Greater Cincinnati Running Hall of Fame's Inaugural Induction Banquet at the original Montgomery Inn. (via Cincinnati.com)

  Billy Orman writes about his trip to New York and the Adidas Dream Mile. Photo by Don Rich/PennTrackXC

A quick look at the happenings from Track and Field atheltes in the first week of the post season.

Jantzen Oshier led most of the race until Lukas Verzbicas (IL) took over the lead in the final lap.

Another weekend of exciting track and field.........The adidas grand prix dream mile and dream 100 dash.....The Golden West Invite.......The New England Championships............NY Federation.........NJ Meet of Champions!  

Deep fields feature 27 athletes ranked top 3 in nation, including 11 at #1

    By Jack Pfeifer EUGENE, Ore. – Bernard Lagat and Lukas Verzbicas were back on the same track again here over the weekend, just as they were at the Armory in February. This time, it was for the Prefontaine Classic, the legendary invitational meet held here at the University of Oregon every spring.

  Lukas Verzbicas gets coveted 2 mile record.  Amy Weissenbach US#3 A-T 2:03.04 800!  Oshier 4:00.83 1600 at CA states.  (Photos by Victah Sailer, PhotoRun.net)

Prep Lukas Verzbicas battles the pros in Boston, winding up a close 2nd to Andrew Baddeley after trying to steal the race.  (Photo courtesy of PhotoRun.net)

NEW YORK – There will come a time when Lukas Verzbicas will have to put what he did in perspective. One day he’ll have to take stock of his performance and see that he laid the foundation for what legend is built on.

Tyler Cardillo got into the big boys heat at New Balance Indoors this weekend! Stepping toe-to-toe with Lukas Verzbicas and other of the nation's top distance runners, he not only held his own but overcame a stratetical and tightly-packed race in his first indoor appearance to finish in third.

Friday at New Balance Indoors was a good night for Florida in the 5K distance. First off was the Shelby Davidson-Julie Wollrath show in the first heat, then Kathryn and Erika Fluehr took over. The closing act was a superb race by David Kilgore.

NEW YORK – Lukas Verzbicas didn’t get exactly what he wanted. But there isn’t much more he could ask for. The Carl Sandberg (Ill.) senior started his weekend record assault Friday at the New Balance Indoor Nationals by breaking his own national record in the 5,000 meters in 14:06.78.

Seniors Claudia Francis of Cardozo and Lukas Verzbicas of Carl Sandburg (Ill.) have been named this week’s AT&T Athletes of the Week for their stellar performances at the New Balance Track and Field Center over the weekend.

Illinois distance phenom Lukas Verzbicas will join Bernard Lagat Saturday night as Lagat in the 2-mile at the NYRR Saturday Night at The Armory III, meet director Jack Pfeifer confirmed late last night.

 US 1500 meter National Champion (2005) Alan Webb presents the Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year trophy to Lukas Verzbicas (Carl Sandberg, IL)  Photos courtesy of Gatorade.

 SAN DIEGO --   Just like the girls race, the boys Foot Locker National Championships ended as expected, but no less exhilarating. (Photos by Don Rich)

A gallery of my favorite photos from NXN 2010.

PORTLAND, Ore. – When Ammar Moussa finally made it back to his team’s tent someone had already pulled out their cell phone to announce exactly how much his Arcadia team had won by.

Photo by Ron Crocker   While the girls' race focus stays on the original purpose of the Nike Cross Nationals in crowning the national team championship and if the Fayetteville-Manlius girls can extend their streak to five titles, it is the individual stars which takes the spotlight for the boys' race at the 2010 Nike Cross Nationals. Defending Foot Locker Nationals champion Lukas Verzbicas of Sandburg High School in Illinois will be attempting to put stamp himself as one of the all-time greats in the history of United States high school cross country by trying to win both national titles at the Nike Cross Nationals and Foot Locker Nationals in consecutive weekends. His biggest test arguably will not be in doubling back on likely tired legs in San Diego next Saturday at Foot Locker Nationals, but his first stop in the double at Portland Meadows in his first ever Nike Cross Nationals race.

This Saturday in frigid Wisconsin 10 boys and girls will look to qualify for the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship in San Diego. Missouri MileSplit's David Everett takes a look at the top contenders starting with the boys.

New harriers make rank, while the top of the guys rankings is as tight as ever!  Here comes the post-season!

A few changes and a few editions, but look for the action to heat up in the coming weeks!

Few changes as most are idle, but there are a handful of new editions to the national roster.

 

Maddie Meyers won the Girls Dream Mile in 4:41.93 and Lukas Verzbicas won the Boys in 4:04.38.  (Photo by Geoff Decker)

Lukas Verzbicas (IL) is a student of the sport. Despite how busy he must be winning World Duathlon Championships, National titles and setting U.S. records, Lukas still finds the time to study the history of the sports he competes in.  That history is currently being rewritten by Lukas, but he doesn't get caught up in all the hype.  "I am the age of a junior so I can't disrespect all the great history here and the runners before me", he said when asked about having the opportunity to be the first boys champion to win three titles in a row. (Photo by Don Rich)

Megan Goethals and Chelsey Sveinsson battle to the line, Lukas Verzbicas dominates front-to-back in the boys race.  Tons of coverage from our on-site team...

This year’s Foot Locker Nationals will still crown the best cross country runner in the country and continue its rich 30 year tradition on Saturday as two champions will face off in Craig Lutz from Texas and Lukas Verzbicas from Illinois. Lutz is fresh off his win last weekend at Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon, while Verzbicas earlier this fall won the World Dualthon junior title. Along with battling it out with each other for the win, both Lutz and Verzbicas will be racing against history as the South region has not had a Foot Locker champion since 1985 (Lutz), while an underclassmen has never won the boys race at Foot Locker Nationals (Verzbicas).

Winning a Foot Locker Nationals cross country title on Saturday would not be that big of a deal for Sandburg (IL) sophomore Lukas Verzbicas. After all, Verzbicas has already the title of World Champion this fall when he claimed the World Dualthon Junior title in late September. The young distance running phenom has followed a much different path to San Diego than all of the other 39 boys qualifiers, but there is no disputing the results as Verzbicas enters as the Midwest Regional champion and one of the race favorites along with NXN individual champion Craig Lutz of Texas. The only thing which kept Verzbicas from racing Lutz and the other top ranked harriers in Portland last weekend were a few nagging injuries which slowed him down from a course record attempt in the Illinois State Meet and withdrawing from competing in the NXN Midwest Regional. Healthy now, Verzbicas is ready to storm through Balboa Park (40% chance of showers on race day) similar to his jaw dropping 14:18 high school national record indoor 5K performance as a freshmen last March at Nike Indoor.

The first of the two national high school cross country championship races were held this past weekend in Portland, Oregon with the Nike Cross Nationals. The boys' race certainly featured many of the nation's best battling it out to the wire, while the girls' race was missing the unofficial "Big 3" in Megan Goethals (MI), Chelsey Sveinsson (TX), and Aisling Cuffe (NY) but stellar depth was found in both races as Foot Locker finalists, All-Americans, and state champions were found deep into the field.  

  Photo courtesy John Olson, SCRUNNERS                                                    

  Photo by PFFlyer                  

  Photo courtesy: John Olson, South Carolina Runner's  

The second edition of the Milesplit Sweet 16 Individual National Rankings features new faces and familiar names  

Photo by Matt Shatkus, NJRunners.com

Version 5.0 of the Midwest Distance Gala is taking place this weekend on the campus of Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. This year’s version looks to be bigger and better than last year’s version and shows that this meet, which started with just 37 finishers the first year, is growing quickly and the quality of the fields assembled is unbelieveable. This year there are storylines by the dozen and the main one looks to be a match-up that has been building since last cross-country season.    

National meets and the last in-state qualifier for the OATCCC Ohio Indoor State Championship Meet are in store for this edition of the weekend wrap up.  Ohio seemed to have a minimal amount of entries in the national meets, but there were still some top notch athletes trying to make their mark on the national scene.

The first of three regular season invitationals in Peoria takes place this weekend, as the Peoria Woodruff Invitational brings together many of the top ranked teams in the state to race on the state meet course. This year seven of the top 13 ranked boys teams and six of the top ten girls teams will take part. Perhaps the most anticipated part is the debut of freshman superstar Lukas Verzbicas, who will face Danny Pawola, Jeff Thode, Anthony Manfrin, Aaron Beattie and Indiana's Drew Shields among others.