A high school cross-country season is built backward from a single Saturday. Whether that Saturday is a state meet, an NXN regional, or just the invitational where you want your pack to peak, every base-building week and every workout block points at it. This calendar collects the dates that anchor the fall 2026 season so you can periodize against them instead of guessing.
One note before the dates: the postseason landscape changed for 2026, and a lot of calendars still have it wrong.
How to read these dates
Race organizers publish the new season’s dates on their own clock — some are locked a year out, most of the invitationals don’t post until July or August. So every entry below carries a confidence grade:
- Confirmed — the official site lists this exact 2026 date.
- Provisional — announced but tentative, or only the week is firm.
- Pattern — the 2026 date isn’t posted yet; this is the meet’s stable recurring slot (e.g. “first Saturday of December”). Use it to plan, but confirm before you commit travel or taper.
When in doubt, the linked official site is the source of truth — not this page. A calendar is a planning tool, not a permission slip.
The biggest change for 2026: Foot Locker is gone
The Foot Locker / Eastbay Cross Country Championships — the individual national championship that ran from 1979 to 2024 — was discontinued after Foot Locker’s acquisition by Dick’s Sporting Goods. It has been revived by the running community as the Brooks XC Championships presented by Fleet Feet, operated by Sound Running.
The good news for coaches: it kept the bones. Same four-region structure, same San Diego/Balboa Park national final, most of the same historic regional courses. The one venue you need to relearn — the Northeast regional moved to Holmdel Park, NJ (from Van Cortlandt / Franklin Park). If your athletes have “Foot Locker” on their goal board, the race still effectively exists; it just answers to a new name.
National championships
There are two national HS cross-country championships, and they qualify athletes differently. NXN is team-based (your program qualifies through one of eight regionals). Brooks (ex–Foot Locker) is individual-based (a runner qualifies through one of four regionals). A talented individual on a non-qualifying team has a path through Brooks; a strong team has a path through NXN.
Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) — team championship
| Meet | Date | Status | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nike Cross Nationals — National Final | Dec 5, 2026 | Pattern | Glendoveer Golf Course, Portland, OR |
| NXN Regionals (8 regions) | Late November 2026 | Pattern | Nationwide |
The eight NXN regions — Northwest, Southwest, California, Heartland, Midwest, South, Southeast, Northeast — run their qualifiers across late November; the top teams advance to Portland. The national final has historically been the first Saturday of December. (Note: beginning with its December 2025 edition NXN began co-hosting the USATF Cross Country Championships; expect that to recur in 2026, though it isn’t yet confirmed.)
Brooks XC Championships presented by Fleet Feet — individual championship
| Meet | Date | Status | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brooks XC Championships — National Final | ~Dec 12, 2026 | Pattern | Balboa Park (Morley Field), San Diego, CA |
| Brooks Midwest Regional | Nov 28, 2026 | Confirmed | UW-Parkside course, Kenosha, WI |
| Brooks West Regional | Dec 5, 2026 | Confirmed | Mt. SAC course, Walnut, CA |
| Brooks Northeast Regional | Late Nov 2026 | Provisional | Holmdel Park, Holmdel, NJ |
| Brooks South Regional | Late Nov / early Dec 2026 | Provisional | McAlpine Creek Park, Charlotte, NC |
The top 10 boys and top 10 girls from each regional advance to the San Diego final.
Marquee in-season invitationals
These are the national-caliber regular-season meets — the ones elite programs travel to and where a fast time gets you noticed. They’re your mid-season fitness checkpoints.
| Meet | Date | Status | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodbridge Cross Country Classic | Sept 18–19, 2026 | Confirmed | Great Park, Irvine, CA |
| Bob Firman Invitational | Sept 25–26, 2026 | Confirmed (venue provisional) | “The Course,” Spokane Valley, WA |
| Roy Griak Invitational | ~Sept 18, 2026 | Provisional | Les Bolstad Golf Course, Falcon Heights, MN |
| Great American Cross Country Festival | Oct 2–3, 2026 | Confirmed | WakeMed Soccer Complex, Cary, NC |
| Manhattan Invitational | ~Oct 10, 2026 | Provisional | Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, NY |
| Rim Rock Farm Classic | Late September 2026 | Pattern | Rim Rock Farm, Lawrence, KS |
A venue move worth flagging: the Bob Firman Invitational did not run in 2025 and is relocating from Eagle Island State Park (Boise, ID) to “The Course” in Spokane Valley, WA. If you’ve raced it before, don’t book the old hotel.
Putting it on a season plan
The shape of a fall is the same whether you coach a state contender or a first-year program: a base block, two or three honest fitness checkpoints at the invitationals above, a sharpening phase, and a taper into your championship Saturday — state meet, NXN regional, or Brooks regional. The dates here are the fixed points; the training between them is yours.
When you build that plan in Smagpie, you can drop these as key events on the team calendar and work the training blocks backward from each one — so the whole roster sees the same horizon you do.