45th Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships

When: Saturday. Girls’ race begins at 9:15 a.m., with boys’ race at 10 a.m.

Where: Morley Field at Balboa Park.

Course: 5,000 meters (3.0 miles), with two challenging hills.

Regional Champions: Girls: Cassidy Armstrong (West), Victoria Garces (Midwest), Virginia Kraus (Northeast) and Elizabeth Leachman (South). Boys: Tyler Dailak (West), Juan Gonzalez (Midwest), Jack Graffeo (Northeast) and Keegan Smith (South).

Girls preview: Defending champion Elizabeth Leachman returns and will be the favorite after capturing the South Regional, then placing third in the Nike Nationals last weekend. At Nike, however, she lost to second-place finisher Victoria Garces by three-tenths of a second. Victoria Garces, who was 20th in this race a year ago, returns. Local favorite Chiara Dailey of La Jolla, running in her third Foot Locker National, was 11th a year ago after winning the West Regional. This year, Dailey finished second at Regionals to Seattle’s Cassidy Armstrong, who won by 22 seconds. Dailey will be joined by state 3,200-meter champion Jaelyn Williams of Eastlake, who placed third in the West Regional but is still rounding into shape after early-season injuries, and Ayanna Hickey of Bishop’s, who was seventh in the Regional. No runners know this course better than those three.

Boys preview: Seniors finished in four of the top five places last year, with the slight favorite at this point being Tamrat Gavenas, who placed third a year ago. Gavenas, however, was beaten in the Northeast Regional by Jack Graffeo. Graffeo didn’t fare well on this course a year ago, placing 30th in 15:59.9 — more than 40 seconds behind Gavenas. Graffeo appears to be a totally different runner this time: He won his regional race by 16 seconds. Juan Gonzalez was 10th here a year ago and looked very strong at the Midwest Regional, clocking a time of 14:58.8 to win by 1.2 seconds over Sean Fries of Minnesota.

STEVE BRAND