Phil Simms started a cliche in 1987, repeating “I’m going to Disney World!” after winning the Super Bowl. For everyone else, what happens after a big competition isn’t so clear.

In cross country, after the State championship you can move on to training for track. Or you can focus on a Foot Locker Regional. If you do well in a Foot Locker Regional, there’s always the Foot Locker Nationals.

What happens to athletes who compete in the Foot Locker Nationals? Do they go on to greater glory? Do they fade away? How well do they compete at the college level?

For the question of collegiate performance, I decided to look at the alumni of the boys’ race at the 2009 Foot Locker Nationals. How many of them achieved the benchmark of NCAA All American status in cross country? Four years have gone by since the seniors in that race graduated, so they should be done with their college athletic careers, right?

As it turned out, no. The athletes that didn’t take a redshirt year were the exceptions in the group of 40 that raced at Balboa Park in 2009. There were also several underclassmen at Foot Locker Nationals that year. So quite a few of the 40 are still in NCAA competition this year. However, eight have become NCAA All Americans in cross country, some more than once, even if their college cross country experience isn’t quite over. They’re worth considering.

If you’re looking for alumni of the 2009 Foot Locker Nationals boys’ race, you could do worse than to start your search in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Matt McElroy was a senior on the surf team at Huntington Beach, California, Edison High when he finished runner-up at the 2009 Foot Locker. McElroy signed with Oklahoma State, but only ran twice with the Cowboys before transferring to Northern Arizona. Despite the lack of surf in Flagstaff, McElroy thrived as a NAU Lumberjack, earning NCAA All-American honors in cross-country as a redshirt junior in 2013. He has track PRs of 13:55.56 in the 5,000 and 28:51.55 in the 10,000. 2014 is his final cross-country season.

Like McElroy, Brian Shrader also transferred to Northern Arizona. For Shrader, it was a return home. He had placed fifth at the 2009 Foot Locker while a senior at Flagstaff’s Sinagua High. Shrader raced for Oregon from 2010 to 2012 before coming back to Flagstaff. As a Lumberjack Shrader made NCAA All American in cross country in 2012 and 2013. On the track he went 3:59.52 in the mile and 13:44.55 in the 5,000.

After graduating North Harrison High in Georgetown, Indiana, Tyler Byrne commuted across the Ohio River to the University of Louisville. Seventh at the 2009 Foot Locker Nationals, as a Cardinal Byrne made NCAA All American in 2013. After earning his degree in criminal justice at Louisville, Byrne joined two of his fellow members of the Foot Locker Class of 2009, McElroy and Shrader, at Northern Arizona. He is working on a graduate degree in education leadership while finishing up his athletic eligibility as a Lumberjack.

Of course, not everyone from the 2009 Foot Locker National ended up in Flagstaff.

Craig Lutz was still in junior year at Marcus High in Highland, Texas, when he placed fourth at the 2009 Foot Locker. He didn’t return to Balboa Park in 2010, but he did go to the World Cross Country Championships as a member of the USA Junior team. After Marcus, he took his game to the University of Texas at Austin.  As a Longhorn he made NCAA All American in cross-country his frosh year, earned a second All-American honor in 2013 by placing third in the NCAA outdoor 10,000, then made NCAA All American in cross country again in 2013. With 2014-2015 still ahead of him, Lutz is a three-time NCAA All American with current career marks of 14:00.95 in the 5,000 and 29:22.75 in the 10,000.

Scott Fauble is another three-time NCAA All-American in cross-country and track who was at Balboa Park in 2009. From Wheat Ridge High in Golden, Colorado, Fauble graduated to the University of Portland. He had been 17th at the 2009 Foot Locker, but Fauble was ahead of all the alumni of that race at the 2013 NCAA cross-country championships where he placed 13th, making All American for the second time. The second time in cross country, that is. Fauble is also a 2012 NCAA All American in outdoor track as a 10,000-meter runner. As a redshirt senior he continued to compete for Portland during the 2014 cross country season.

After finishing third in the 2009 Foot Locker Nationals, Wade Meddles headed from Sierra Lutheran High in Gardnerville, Nevada, to Azusa Pacific University. Meddles made NAIA All American in cross country twice as a Cougar before heading across the continent to Eastern Kentucky University. In 2012, his first cross-country season as a Colonel, Meddles made NCAA All American. His collegiate bests were 13:46.27 in the 5,000 and 29:46.08 in the 10,000.

When Jake Hurysz placed sixth at the 2009 Foot Locker Nationals, he was a senior at Eastern Alamance High in Mebane, NC. From Mebane, it was just over 20 miles to the University of North Carolina, where Hurysz competed in 2010 and 2011. After qualifying for the 2011 NCAA Cross Country Championship as a Tar Heel, Hurysz transferred to Colorado. In 2012, his first cross country season as a Buff, Hurysz was the top runner on the team, making NCAA All American and leading Colorado to a third-place finish at Nationals. Hurysz didn’t compete during the 2013 cross country season, but as a redshirt senior in 2014 he just might make NCAA All American one more time. So far, his track bests are 3:40.63 in the 1,500 and 13:38.58 in the 5,000.

Martin Grady, the 13th-place finisher at Balboa Park in 2009, was a product of the Midwest, hailing from Fenwick High in the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge, Illinois. Grady stayed in the Midwest after graduation, heading to South Bend, Indiana, and Notre Dame. Running for the Fighting Irish, Grady capped his career with an All-American performance in the 2013 NCAA Cross Country Championships.

This isn’t to say that the rest of Foot Locker’s Class of 2009 just evaporated. In fact, quite a few of them were at the NCAA-D1 Cross Country Championships in 2013. Here they are in the order that they finished in Terre Haute, with their place-of-finish at Balboa Park appended.

30:21.3 ~ Scott Fauble (Portland) 17th

30:22.9 ~ Craig Lutz (Texas) 4th

30:36.0 ~ Matt McElroy (Northern Arizona) 2nd

30:37.8 ~ Tyler Byrne (Louisville) 7th

30:43.3 ~ Martin Grady (Notre Dame) 13th

30:53.5 ~ Tyler Udland (Princeton) 16th

31:01.6 ~ Ryan Poland (Portland) 28th

31:03.7 ~ Wade Meddles (Eastern Kentucky) 3rd

31:10.1 ~ Kirubel Erassa (Oklahoma State) 8th

31:14.0 ~ John Raneri (North Carolina) 35th

31:39.1 ~ Brandon Lord (Georgia) 14th

31:42.9 ~ Shane Moskowitz (Oklahoma State) 9th

32:38.7 ~ Kurt Ruegg (Harvard) 32nd

33:04.1 ~ Walter Schafer (Notre Dame) 22nd

You can see that there isn’t a very strong correlation between order of finish at Foot Locker and order of finish at the NCAA four years later. Cross country isn’t a sport of resumes. Also, it’s not an easy transition from a 5K national race to a 10K international race. Some athletes are more focused on shorter track events than on long cross-country races that are just a fall thing for them. You wouldn’t measure their success by what they did in college cross country. For instance, Kirubel Erassa was eighth at Foot Locker 2009. He never made NCAA All American in cross country, but he did run a 3:58.84 mile and a 13:47.26 5,000 at Oklahoma State while making NCAA All American twice in indoor track. Even with a focus on the middle distances, as a redshirt senior in 2014 Erassa is leading the nation’s fourth-ranked cross-country squad.

There should be some members of the Foot Locker Nationals Class of 2009 in Terre Haute again on 22 November 2014, racing in the NCAA D1 Cross Country Championships. There will also be Foot Locker Nationals alumni from other years on the starting line in Terre Haute. And after 13 December 2014 there will be a new class of Foot Locker alumni to watch.