Harrison runs 11th at nationals
SAN DIEGO — New Mexico’s premier cross country runner nearly had a top-10 finish at the year’s most prestigious race.
Kashon Harrison of Fruitland, who is a senior at Kirtland Central High School, placed 11th out of 40 runners Saturday at the Foot Locker National Championships.
Harrison, a two-time state cross country champion for Broncos, finished the 5-kilometer course in 15 minutes, 37.4 seconds. The winner, Cole Hocker of Indianapolis, ran a time of 15:13.7.
“It went great,” Harrison said in a phone interview with the Journal. “I had such a great experience running against this competition.”
Harrison also qualified for this race a year ago, when he placed 14th in 15:50.9. He is a third-team All-American based on his finish Saturday.
“The plan was just to hold back and see what happens at the end, to see if I had what it takes at the end, and see if I could get top 10,” Harrison said. He finished less than a second behind the 10th-place runner.
Harrison will return to action in the spring in distance events for Kirtland Central track and field. Before then he said his top priority is to pick a college.
He has made an official visit to Colorado and also is interested in Oregon and Syracuse. “I want to get this done sooner rather than later,” Harrison said of college.
Harrison was New Mexico’s most dominant runner the last two seasons, capturing most of the state’s top-flight events, such as the UNM Invitational and the Rio Rancho Jamboree.
He was asked which he will recall with more fondness, his two wins at state or the chance to compete at nationals twice.
“I think nationals,” he said. “It’s more fun to have a great experience meeting other kids.”
Harrison qualified for nationals by winning the West Regional race last week, also in California.