NXN Shows How to Cover an XC Meet

After the Versus network botched coverage of the NCAA Div I Cross Country Championships, there were some message-board posters who said, in effect, that the running community should be happy that it was on TV at all. That misguided perspective was utterly devalued by the superb webcast of yesterday's NXN (Nike Cross Nationals), the unofficial but very real high school XC championships.

Everything that was wrong with the Versus coverage was exposed as lazy and shallow by the NXN webcast. Where Versus used commentators and interviewers who had done minimal research and had -- at best -- a vague notion of the top two-three teams and individuals, the NXN announcers were amazingly well-prepared, and were able to provide significant background detail before, during, and after the race. NXN used Toni Reavis, and he is by far the best U.S. announcer we have for distance running. The commentators included Rich Gonzalez of DyeStat California, and a seemingly endless supply of world-class athletes who had run at Footlocker when they were in high school.

What clinched it, though, was that NXN had live splits and team score updates at every kilometer. while the scores were somewhat misleading (for some reason, the software wasn't programmed to remove the non-scoring individuals from the team score), it still made all the difference to know what was going on, which teams were moving up or falling back, and how it was all developing.

Versus also shot itself in the foot by taking multiple commercials breaks during each of the two NCAA races. The NXN webcast showed the races in their entirety. It was riveting.

If you didn't watch it live, you can watch it all again here:

NXN Boys Championship Race

NXN Girls Championship Race

If I were a high school runner, watching these would make this race and the whole experience look like the coolest thing ever.

Well done, NXN!