There are three post-season race options:

• USATF Junior Olympics (JO’s) includes the Association Race (A) on 11/14 in Tacoma/University Place, the Regional Race (R) on 11/20 in University Place, and the Nationals Race (N) on 12/11 in Lexington.  Your child may forgo the 11/14 and 11/20 races and go straight to nationals, or participate in any combination of the three races.  JO’s are run in age divisions (8&U, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-18).  At this time, it appears we will not have enough runners to form scoring teams in these divisions for the national race, but we might have scoring teams in the Association and/or Regional races.  Regardless, your child would still run under the team name “Whisper Running,” just not be part of a scoring team.

• Foot Locker races are for high school runners only, and does not include team scoring.  At this time, we have around 5 girls considering this event.  The Regional race is on 12/4 in Walnut, CA, and the National race is on 12/11 in San Diego.

• NXR (Nike XC Regionals) is historically for HS runners, but now seems to include MS as well. Regardless, we will only have HS runners at this event on 11/13 in Boise.  Although this event is for high school runners, it does not include clubs in the team scoring. At this time, it appears we will have 10-15 runners participate at this event.

Note: HS/MS runners cannot represent their schools, so when I say HS/MS, I simply mean HS-age or MS-age competing independently or with a club.

Now that we are clear on the three races, dates, and locations, see the Google Spreadsheet to make sure your child is in the preferred race.  Some families are still uncertain where their child will participate, so their name (in the cell) is shaded a light green.  Abbreviations are "A" for Association Race, "R" for JO Regional Race, "N" for JO National Race, "FL" for Foot Locker, and "NXR" for Nike Cross Regionals.

Moving forward, although I am happy to help families navigate decisions, I cannot be in all places at once, so these generous ladies have taken the lead for the following races:

• Foot Locker runners (parents), your point of contact is Stacy Redfern, Smmullens@yahoo.com. 

• NXR runners, your point of contact is Annie Christie, anneechristie@hotmail.com 

• USATF JO runners, your point of contact is me.

If your child plans to run Foot Locker or NXR, they may still run JO's. For meet and travel information, see the Whisper Calendar. You must RSVP with Coach Dave at least one week before any of the races (JO races) to be registered to participate.