Growing up along the western bank of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the most frequent boasts one heard was that something or other was “the oldest (whatever) west of the Mississippi”.   While obviously true of many things, that designation never held for the sport of cross country.  In fact, today, not a mile off the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean, San Diego’s Balboa Park hosted the oldest continuously run cross country invitational west of the Mississippi at the 69^th Aztec Invitational. (more…)