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Rio Rancho's Charlie Vause wins Nike Cross Nationals
Rio Rancho’s Charlie Vause had several notable performances this past season and was named the Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Player of the Year in February.
Rio Rancho senior runner Charlie Vause is a national champion.
Vause won the Nike Cross Nationals on Saturday, claiming victory on a rain-soaked 5K course in Portland, Oregon.
He crossed the finish line in 15 minutes, 28.1 seconds, 2½ seconds ahead of TJ Hansen, a senior from Freeland, Michigan. Caden Leonard, a junior from Southlake, Texas, was third.
Vause may have been an unlikely champion going into the race.
He won the New Mexico Class 5A cross country state meet in 2023 but finished second this year to Organ Mountain’s Corbin Coombs. Vause is a state champion in track, having won the 3,200 meters at the 2024 state meet as a junior.
Rio Rancho’s cross country team, ranked No. 11 in the nation, competed in the Nike Cross Regionals in Mesa, Arizona on Nov. 23. The team finished sixth, failing to qualify for nationals, but Vause took third overall and was invited to the competition this weekend in Portland.
Nike Cross Nationals features the 22 top teams, made up of seven runners each, and the 50 top individuals from across the country. The field of boys and girls is about 200 runners each.
Going into nationals, Vause was ranked No. 26 in the nation.
HELLO CHARLIE VAUSE
— RunnerSpace (@runnerspace) December 7, 2024
2024 #NXN CHAMP
⏱️ 15:28.1 pic.twitter.com/19LWON8dUZ
Last year, Albuquerque’s Gianna Rahmer won Nike Cross Regionals Southwest and finished sixth at nationals as an eighth-grader. Rahmer, now a freshman at Eldorado, placed 27th at regionals — the top girls runner from New Mexico — but didn’t qualify for nationals.
