NSAF’s new XC Town USA Meet of Champions will offer first major HS competition since March

Oct 05, 2020 by Steve Underwood

TERRE HAUTE, IN, Oct. 5, 2020 – If you’re a harrier yearning for high-level racing opportunities and chances to run for major titles this fall, look no further. The National Scholastic Athletics Foundation has a brand new meet waiting for you in “XC Town USA.”

The XC Town USA Meet of Champions, Presented by The Garrett Companies, will take off Sunday, November 15, 2020 at the LaVern Gibson Championship XC Course in Terre Haute, Indiana – including Boys and Girls High School 5k Championship races that are inviting the nation’s best teams and individuals.

MEET INFO | REGISTER HERE

The schedule includes 12 races on the storied layout, also including Elite/Open Men’s (8k) and Women’s (6k) competition, plus freshman (5k), middle school (3k) and high school “A” and “B” divisions (5k). Each race is open to both individuals and teams, with high school and middle school teams invited to compete as clubs.

The event has been made possible due to the incredible support of The Garrett Companies and its Founder and CEO Eric Garrett, and the NSAF is also thankful to be partnering with Runnerspace.com and AthleticNET for webcasting, promotion and registration.

“This is all about providing an opportunity for kids to get some elite-level post-season competition this year and doing so as safely as possible,” said NSAF Executive Director Jim Spier. “We are so very grateful to The Garrett Companies, the City of Terre Haute and all of the staff and officials from LaVern Gibson who are working with us to make this happen.”

Several meets have been contested at LaVern Gibson already this fall, following state and local COVID-19 guidelines, with the Indiana High School Championships currently scheduled for October 31 – preceding the XC Town USA Meet of Champions by two weeks.

“We are thrilled to be able to hold this event at a venue like LaVern Gibson, with such a great tradition and with the help of such experienced staff and officials on the ground,” said Meet Director Kristi Rieger. “The fact that they’ve been working with COVID-19 guidelines already this fall is extremely valuable.”

The COVID-19 protocol will include wearing masks at all times (except while racing), well-spaced race start times that will allow for egress and ingress from the course, the use of every other box on the starting line and other measures. The compete protocol – as well as other important meet details – will be available soon on the AthleticNET meet info page, the meet’s home page on Runnerspace.com and pages on the NSAF website.

The support of Mr. Garrett and his organization has been invaluable in creating this event. “Late last spring, I started learning about the NSAF and then reached out to them to talk about how we possibly could get involved in supporting an event,” he said. “As we saw what was happening this fall, with lot of kids having limited opportunities to compete -- or none at all -- I thought we could step in to help fill a void.”

The Garrett Companies is based in Greenwood, Ind., though Mr. Garrett and his family recently relocated to the Denver area, where his son Ty is a sophomore cross-country runner at Valor Christian High School. As a freshman at Center Grove HS in Indiana last spring, Ty ran a state class record 9:08.87 for 3,200m on the track.

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CONTACT: Steve Underwood, Director of Media & Public Relations, NSAF
[email protected]

CONTACT: David Patterson, Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau
(for information on hotels, accommodations and other Terre Haute info)
[email protected]

About the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation, Inc.
The National Scholastic Athletics Foundation (NSAF) was founded in 1990. It is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization with the mission of opening doors to the world for our youth, through athletics, and providing them opportunities to succeed. That includes supporting high school and junior-aged track and field athletes in the US through national high school competitions, including the NSAF Indoor and Outdoor Nationals; The Great American XC Festival and HBCU Challenge; and the American Javfest and Ironwood Throws Classic. It also includes Team NSAF international competition and team-building events in Cuba and Iceland; clinics and event-specific special projects, such as Project Javelin Gold and Project Triple Jump; vigorous grant programs, which enable high school athletes to compete around the country, at USATF Junior Nationals, and internationally; and with program development grants, which are awarded in the winter and fall each year. The NSAF provides approximately $250,000 in grants annually.  For more information about the NSAF, please visit NationalScholastic.org.

About The Garrett Companies
The Garrett Companies are a full service Multifamily Development, Construction, and Management team based in Greenwood, Indiana (Indianapolis MSA) MSA) with offices in Denver, CO and Fort Myers, FL. Our team of professionals work in unison to entitle, develop, build, and manage multifamily apartment projects across the country. We are currently active in 6 states, and have completed over 50 projects in 14 states. The Garrett Companies' mission is to develop, build, and manage multifamily assets nationwide using an approach that builds value, eliminates risk and provides superior risk-adjusted returns.  For more information about The Garrett Companies, please visit thegarrettco.com.