A weeklong sprint: How Brooks rescued HS running championships at Balboa Park

High school cross country fans and athletes were crushed to learn August 21 that Foot Locker had ended its nearly half-century championships at Balboa Park.

Also sorry: running companies.

“A lot of brands didn’t want to see this go away,” said Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa, who won the girls race in 1994. “They didn’t care how — they just didn’t want to see it go away.”

So with Jorge Torres of Boston — the 1998 boys winner — and a team of others, including Santee’s Tracy Sundlun, the gun sounded on finding a sponsor.

A week later, Seattle shoe-maker Brooks took the title.

“There (were) definitely talks with other companies,” Torres told Times of San Diego, adding that Brooks was the first “to step to the line and say: ‘We’re here with you.'”

The meet, set for Dec. 13, will formally be called the “Brooks XC Championships presented by Fleet Feet,” a chain of running shoe stores.

Four regional qualifying meets — each sending the top 10 boys and 10 girls to San Diego — will keep the tradition dating to 1979. Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut will again host the West Regional.

But Brooks and the volunteer rescue team will add a twist, expanding the Balboa Park 3.1-mile fields from 40 to 50 with “golden tickets.”

The top 10 boys and top 10 girls nationally who didn’t run at regionals will get all-expenses paid trips to San Diego. (Coaches and parents must handle their own tabs.)

A committee yet to be decided will pick the elite entrants. It’s expected to give runner-rich California a leg up.

Garrett Heath, a former Foot Locker nationals entrant, is head of global sports marketing for Brooks.

He said Brooks and Fleet Feet made a multi-year commitment to hosting the meet.

“The golden-ticket component was developed in collaboration with our partners and inspired by the success of our Brooks PR Invitational model,” Heath said, referring to the annual track-only outdoor meet that pays the way for top middle-school and high school runners (and yielded two national records in June).

“We think the combination of regional qualifiers and selected competitors will be a winning formula,” he said. “We are still working through the details, but we are committed to free live-streaming of the events so everyone can watch the toughest of toughest race.”

Stamps will help with marketing — she owns a company called eventus. And Jesse Williams, founder of the professional track meet organizer Sound Running, will aid as well.

Meet director will again be Valley Center High School athletic director Mike Cummings, who has 17 CIF titles in track and cross country at several schools.

Before the Brooks news broke, Cummings told me how 20-30 people help set up the Balboa Park course on the Wednesday through Friday before Saturday’s event, with local coaches bringing 100-200 student-athletes to help on race day.

“Our goal … all along has been to make cross-country something special,” Cummings said in a phone interview. “Foot Locker did a hell of a job as far as supporting that and even then taking it to the next level — bringing in the Jumbotron and those types of things.”

Stamps, whose two teen daughters run, said the golden tickets will “help solve some issues where, you know, kids in California” had to choose between running in regionals vs. the Nike Cross Nationals, a competing event in Portland, Oregon.

Beijing Olympian Torres, a sports agent and marketer for Global Athletic, says his “gateway” group of rescuers has crossed a majority of hurdles — mainly the financing.

“Now we’re focusing more on … the details to make sure that the event is well-exposed and well taken care of,” he said, including finding a “media partner” such as RunnerSpace with a history of webcasting high school events. “There’s a couple of options out there.”

San Diego coach Paul Greer, president of the San Diego-Imperial association of USA Track & Field, said he had remained optimistic that a new sponsor would step in.

He expressed gratitude to Brooks/Fleet Feet so the event “continues here in San Diego without any disruptions. Special words of appreciation go to Julia and Jorge for their due diligence and essentially making this possible.”

He said USATF doesn’t have a direct hand in putting on the Balboa Park meet but can provide officials.

Also, he said, “much of the equipment for these championships is housed at the USATF San Diego president’s workplace, so time will tell if that unique partnership continues. … San Diego fans of the sport will now still be able to witness the finest high school cross country runners in our great nation and witness some who will inevitably become future Olympians.”

Torres, also director of the Northeast regional meet, said qualifiers for San Diego nationals will be “treated like royalty.”

But legalities remain. So far, the Brooks commitment is a handshake deal. No legal contract has been signed.

“Julia, myself and and Jesse were kind of already aligned to look for the future of this event,” Torres told me. “How we’re going to save it and how we protect … this beautiful moment of experience for these kids.”

He said that after Foot Locker quit, it was “kind of . . . off to the races.” They worked the phones and connections. His group “really had a strategy to get it done and motivated, you know, with the passionate people about sports.”

But Stamps said organizers will be “looking at the model and just seeing [if] efficiencies can be created” in 2026 regionals.

Stamps won her 5,000-meter race at Foot Locker in 16 minutes, 41 seconds — just off the girls meet record of 16:39.8 by Melody Fairchild in 1990.

In a phone chat Friday, Stamps said her time helping secure a sponsor was exhausting.

“All I can say it’s been quite a week,” she said. “Just for the record, it’s harder to do what we’re doing (than) a 16:41. … This is a much harder workout.”

How will golden-ticket winners be decided?

“Give me two weeks,” she said. “I [just] got through this week.”