Chasing Perfection

Saturday is the finale — the end of the high school cross country season at the Foot Locker Nationals at Balboa Park in San Diego, Calif., and the region has two great story lines.

Can Edward Cheserek finish off his perfect season? The junior from St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J., hasn't just won all seven races he has run, he has shattered the course record at each. The Balboa record has stood since 1985 when Reuben Reina, a native Texan who later starred at the University of Arkansas, ran 14:36.

Of Cheserek's quest, Doug Binder of ESPN Rise wrote that, if he breaks Reina's mark, "the achievement will surely go down as one of the greatest in prep cross country history."

Cheserek told Binder, "I try to keep myself motivated all the time. Last year, I had lots of competition. This year there is not as much." But Saturday will be different as he will face Nike Cross Champion Futsum Zeinasellassie of North Central High in Indianapolis for the first time.

"For me, in my mind, I would like to win and get the course record," Cheserek said. "But Futsum is a great runner, so it will not be easy."

On the women's side, there will be a rare appearance in the elite field by a runner from New York's PSAL. University of Tennessee-bound Alexis Panisse of Benjamin Cardozo High will be the first such entrant at Foot Locker — back then the Kinney Championships — since Nnenna Lynch represented Hunter in 1988.

The regional champions for the girls, thus the leading contenders, are Pennsylvania's Angel Piccirillo (Northeast), Wisconsin's Molly Seidel (Midwest), Texas' Cali Roper (South) and California's Karlie Garcia (West). Joining Cheserek (Northeast) and Zeinasellassie (Midwest) as regional boys' champions are California's Darren Fahy (West) and Texas' Craig Nowak (South), who beat Virginia's Ahmed Bile by a second at the regional.

The other Armory regional participants with Cheserek and Panisse will be New York's Dan Lennon (Morrisonville) and Laura Leff (Syracuse); New Jersey's Tim Ball (Piscataway), Blake Udland (Short Hills), Holly Bischoff (Hainesport) and Caroline Kellner (West Windsor); Pennsylvania's Dustin Wilson (Philadelphia), Angel Piccirillo (Homer City), Meredith Speakman (Carlisle) and Tori Gerlach (Perkasie) and Connecticut's Connor Rog (Fairfield).