Newbury Park screws the pooch

Lex ran faster.

Funny the meet director is now getting blame for the poor performance when NP has said Arcadia is the best run and most favored race by their team. Field sizes have always been the same and that is why most kids believe they run fast (getting swept up with the crowd). Track in high school is about racing, not time trials with pacers like most of the races where NP kids PR (see the Sundown series). There is no excuse. They didn’t perform to expectations and proclamations. Stop with the excuses and own it.

And Aaron didnt even run the 3200 in February. So only Leo and Colin ran slower. And its tough for me to say he had a bad race considering only 1 other person in HS history has run faster at 3200, and he was only 1 second off of his PR.

Some of these posters need to touch grass, instead of hating on a group of 16/17 year old kids on an anonymous message board.

Than the 7:56 he ran at the Armory?

Wow must have missed him breaking the indoor WR at the armory, super impressive for a 16 year old. 3k is not a 3200 you buffoon.

8:01 for 3000 is better than 8:48 for 3200. When you talk a bunch of smack before the race, you can fairly expect some criticism or disappointment when you don’t deliver.

7:56 for 3k is much faster than 8:35 for 3200 you buffoon.

Fair to blame their own performances on going out too fast. Not fair to blame bad performances of others who were too dumb to go out at their own reasonable pace on the NP guys.

I was there and watched the entire meet, there were more falls and recalls in the distance events than there were false starts in the sprints. As has been previously mentioned a girl was walked off the track for the girls invitational mile after falling during the start and that race had a small field. There were also multiple falls and restarts during the 800s and those had smaller fields as well. So that was the atmosphere going into this race, every athlete and coach was thinking get out fast. The problem is how close in ability each field was, you have 30 kids all within about 15-20 seconds of each other for an 8 lap race, that means all 30 kids are trying to occupy the same 2 second span by the end of the first lap, it's just not physically possible. You can run 30 kids in a high school 3200, but typically they are spread out over a minute or two.

I went back and looked through my NFHS rulebook and there's no details on how any of these races are supposed to be started, it's left entirely up to the meet director, so there is some room for creativity here. I think the double alley with waterfalls in the 800s were a mistake. The 800 should be started with a 1 turn stagger and the cut in happens on the back straight, or mini-alleys with only 2-3 kids per alley and then the main merge on the back straight, that alone could have prevented several falls and restarts. At the St. Vrain Invite in Colorado last year they ran a 2 turn stagger for the 800 with the cut in on the front straight and they had tight fields and no one fell. The mile is tricky, at least there is a little space before the curve, the girl that fell had already run in other events and I think exhaustion might have played a factor.

Newbury Park's 7th man from Cross Country ran 9:02 with their 5th man run-in g 8:52. Leo was sick and Colin ran 8:34 and Lex ran 8:35.

The only thing they did a poor job at was pacing in the begging. Leo being sick should've never touched the pacing duties. His second lap was 67-68sec and screwed them from really running fast. We can't blame a 16-17 year old for wanting to run Arcadia sick. This race is big and fun and sometimes you just want to do it.

Colin and Lex looked comfortable running 8:30's and closing in 59sec. They looked liked Pro's out there dominating the race.

They continue to impress race after race.

They are high school kids running some of the fastest times in American high school history. Screwed the pooch? I'm sick of all these losers projecting their own feelings of inadequacy onto others. I really think the Skip Baylesses and Stephen A. Smiths of the world have done nothing but poor negativity into sports analysis and then every day morons, like the person who started this post, follow suit.

I actually think you’re completely right. However, you can also put blame on their coach. Without the bold predictions, the expectations wouldn’t be the same. While they are amazing kids and running unbelievable times, they did fall dramatically short of the predicted times that were publicly stated. When they predict 7 breaking 9:00, 4 breaking 8:30, at least one breaking the national record and none of those things happened, it’s fair to say it was a failure. Only 2 of those 7 ran faster (relative with converted 3k times) than they did earlier in the year, they had only 4 break 9:00, none broke 8:30 and no record. Those are all significant accomplishments, but not when compared with the expectations they publicly stated for themselves.

The coach puts enormous, unnecessary pressure on these kids by constantly predicting what they are "going to do". Their performances this weekend can only be looked at as a failure when compared with what he predicted. At some point, there is going be a kid(s) that completely melts or implodes because the coach talks too much. Let the kids running speak for them and it would be hard to criticize what they accomplished this past weekend or what they are going to do in the future. It was incredible!

I don't buy that the coach puts enormous pressure on them. The kids have bought into a culture of being fast and going after big goals and being confident about it. I laugh at all these people that are say they should be protected from harsh criticism because they are kids. Yes, they are kids but they are also complicit in making themselves public figures and splashing themselves all over the internet for the world to see. The Young Brothers are turning into quite the video production company (very well done BTW). They certainly don't object to the insane Instagram numbers or exposure across the board. Their parents also have to have seen all of this and buy into what is going on too. You can't say don't criticize the kids harshly when they put themselves on blast like they do. I don't think it's bad and they are obviously tough enough to handle it. They keep pumping out videos. When you put yourself in the public arena, the cruel or positive opinions come with the territory. I do not think anyone at Newbury Park is naive to this fact. In fact, they arguably embrace it.

In addition, if Cade Flatt doesn't break the 800 record this season and gets heavily snapped on about it and there endless jokes made about it, I won't be saying stop it because he's a kid. When you talk big and put yourself out there, criticism is coming regardless of what happens. Some will handle it better than most.

I love the fact that they don't shy down off of the pressure. People ask and want to know and they answer.

Newbury Park killed it at Arcadia and they continue to perform at a higher level then any other high school distance team in history. I rather have a coach answer questions about a team everyone wants to know about then a keyboard worrier behind a computer screen act like he knows all.

First off, it's commonly referred to as a keyboard warrior, not keyboard worrier.

I'm sure a keyboard warrior, such as yourself, does love it when the coach answers questions by putting 16 and 17 year old kids in the pressure cooker. It doesn't mean it's good for them.

There is a humble and gracious way to answer questions without saying specific times and talking about breaking records. If they want that pressure, let them say it.

Ok we will refer to you as “Keyboard Worrier” from now on.

Noting wrong with going after records and announcing it. It’s great for the sport. Unlike you who criticize people who break records

Call me whatever you want, I'm not the idiot that doesn't know it's called a keyboard warrior.

Nothing wrong with going after records and announcing it, IF YOU'RE THE ONE ACTUALLY DOING IT!

No criticism at all of the kids, their cool and well done YouTube channel or their swagger. These kids have enough pressure on them and if they choose to pile more on, that should be up to them. A coach should protect them, help deflect pressure and remove outside distractions, not become part of the problem.