Rheinhardt Harrison to NAU

They’re not stagnating. They’re running against the two top 10k runners in the entire world, and a bunch of other Africans who have have either ran professional before, or are on the cusp of making a worlds team.

The NCAA is not the same as it was 5 years ago. It is substantially more competitive.

your expectations for NAU are a bit much. 3 points at indoor/outdoor is pretty much their average. the 5 and 10K and occasionally the 1500 is all they ever send. they've never, and probably will never, podium as they have no sprinters or relay teams - at least not at the level of Power 5 teams.

(and speaking of Power 5 teams, Colorado, Stanford, Penn State, Ohio State, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana all got zero points)

The Sahlman brothers and Harrison may be one of the fastest DMRs in collegiate history that may never run together. Nonetheless, I hope Harrison has a great experience at NAU. 🤞🏾

And yet here you are talking them down on a message board

How is it expecting too much to want to see Bosley, a former collegiate record holder, score a SINGLE POINT at NCAAs? Or at least get in the top 16 (hint, he couldn't).

It should be considered a massive failure when Colin Sahlman fails to make the 1500 final.

Or when their 8:32 steeplechaser doesn't even make it out of regionals.

It's more embarrassing that NAU only got 3 distance points than it is that Colorado scored zero distance points. CAL POLY scored more distance points than NAU.

No, NAU was very much down indoors and outdoors this year. For the distances only, compare NAU and Oregon in recent years.

2025:

NAU: indoors 3k-Bosley 12th, Sahlman 16th; mile-Sahlman 8th; 5k-Bosley 9th; none in 800 or DMR; 1 pt Very poor by NAU standards

Oregon: 800 Ericsson 1st; 3rd DMR, none in mile, 3k, 5k; 16 pts Solid in two events but didn't even have competitors in mile, 3k, 5k

2024:

NAU: 800-none; mile-Sahlman 6th; 3k-Young 1st, Las Heras 9th, Quax 13th; 5k-Young-1st, Las Heras 7th, Quax 14th; ; DMR 11th; 25 points

Oregon: 800, mile, 3k, 5k, DMR-none. 0 pts Oregon had set the BU DMR record just a month earlier, yet was not even in the DMR, nor any of the other distance finals. A complete shutout for the greatest historical distance program

2023 (at altitude in ABQ):

NAU-800, mile, DMR-none; 3k Bosley 2nd; 5k-Bosley 3rd, Young 4th (what a difference two years make! Ky Robinson was also down and a freshman Graham Blanks was well back over 14, so Bosley beat two future sub-12:50 guys and a sub-13 guy in this race); 19 pts

Oregon-800, 3k, 5k, DMR-none; mile-Cook 7th a wretched showing for the most famous distance program in the NCAA, 2 pts

2022:

NAU: 5000-Nur 1st, Young 3rd, Bosley 8th; 800, DMR, mile none; 3k-Nur 1st, Young 7th; 29 pts

Oregon: 5000-BIenenfeld 10th; DMR, 3k none; mile-Brown 3rd, Yearian 10th; 800-Peralta 7th; 8 pts This is pre-Schumacher, as he was hired in the Summer of 2022. With Schumacher as coach, Oregon scored a grand total of 2 pts in the men's distances the next two years indoors.

Outdoors:

2025

NAU: 10k-Mullarkey 6th, Bosley 20th; 5k-Mullarkey 10th, Bosley 17th; 3 pts

Oregon: 800-Erickson 2nd, Kidali 9th; 1500-Birnbaum 7th; steeple Balazs 7th; 5k, 10k-none 12 pts

2024

NAU: 800, steeple-none; 1500-Sahlman 4th; 5000 Young 2nd, Grotenuis 9th, Hasty 14th; 10000 Las Heras 11th, Grotenhuis 14th; 13 pts

Oregon: 800, steeple, 5000, 10000-none; 1500 Cook 2nd 8 pts

2023

NAU: 5000 Young 8th; 800, 1500, steeple, 10000 none Really a down year outdoors for NAU with 1 pt

Oregon: 800, 1500, steeple, 5000, 10000 none 0 pts

A total disaster, almost a shutout indoors and out in Schumacher's first year.

2022

NAU: 1500 Kusch 11th; 800, steeple-none; 5000 Young 3rd; 10000 Nur 3rd 12 pts

NAU scored 102 pts by my count in its last eight indoor/outdoor champs, averaging nearly 13 pts in the men's distances per champs.

Oregon: 800, 1500 none; 5000 Bienenfeld 13th; 10000 Bienenfeld 8th 1 pt

So you could see why Oregon would fire the distance coach but then in 2023, they scored none outdoors, 2 indoors, and got a 2nd and that's it for their distance finalists in 2024. In Schumacher's 3rd year on the job in 2025, after two wasted years, he finally had some pretty good distance results both indoors and outdoors, but nothing close to legendary. Schumacher's Oregon men's distance guys totaled 38 pts in six competitions or just over 6 pts per competition, less than half NAU with much more in the way of resources. But make no mistake that NAU was down indoors and outdoors with Bosley not back to his old form and Sahlman awol or not doing well at championships. NAU had a fine xc champs last year. Harrison should help if he is healthy. He was sick for years with Jerry as coach, probably overtraining him and leading him to get the mono and not be able to get over it, but he did run high 3:38, low 3:39 in 2023, 2024, and 2025 with very little health, so the talent is still there.

It certainly seemed so from the outside looking in. Lots of injuries and sickness, relegated to pacing duties, 3:38-9 for 3 solid years is not all that fantastic for a 3:59 guy from hs. (Though he did run 3:54 indoors this year in which surely would have seemed like a very hopeful performance at the time.)

Matt you are the biggest NAU apologist on this website. NAU basically gets the first pick of all the top USA talent in the nation, and they could only manage 3 points? And you are ok with that?

NAU had a shot at winning NCAA indoors if COVID didn't shut it down.

3 points is a rotten, no good result for them. If this is a sign of what's to come after Smith leaves, then NAU is in big trouble.

Really? The schools that are about on par with NAU with just American talent is BYU, Stanford, UNC, WF, ND, Oregon and other schools where the average GPA is ~3.8 or higher. NAU automatically accepts students with a 2.75 with no questions asked. In a sport like running that tends to have more academically capable athletes this definitely hurts their ability to recruit.

Well for one thing, 90% of the top American high school distance runners cannot get into Stanford, Wake Forest, or Notre Dame. BYU is 95% for mormons and that basically restricts their recruiting to only Utah athletes. Those are disadvantages that NAU doesn't have.

NAU also has a distinct advantage of altitude, which is a MASSIVE draw for recruits.

NAU has also heavily relied on international athletes in the past, but they haven't put in the work to recruit the best international athletes in recent years.

Rheinhardt Harrison seems more chill than the other Oregon recruits, which is perfectly fine, but probably not a culture fits. Some people like cut throat for success, others want more chill to allow them to develop. Probably a good move for the kid - enjoy Flagstaff and amazing coaches / teammates.

nice

Is he at NAU or dropped out of college?

He is cute isn't he?

maybe taking a gap year? I haven't seen him in any of their training videos nor is he listed on roster.

Proud NAU graduate, lol

My understanding is he wasn't going to make the move until winter term. Finished his fall classes at Oregon.