Has Mike Smith failed Nico Young?

Exactly this. Nico has had that super-twink-model look since high school. If he was actually way too lean you'd see a lot more vascularity. He is one of those rare bird-humans built for the marathon.

Big picture: If you can move away from home after high school, balance studies with athletics to an extent you are placing top-10 individually season after season while on track to graduate, then that is an excellent sign for a potential post-collegiate pro career where the sole focus will be on athletics.

agree-both had big expectations but did really well in college-Derrick couldn't keep healthy with Jerry-big surprise...

Nico Young had a delayed start to the season because of some health issues, so that might explain his finish to the season but that field has not been a constant during his time. It has only gotten significantly better every year. You had a 27:20 guy who was 17th at World XC ahead of him this year. Nico ran 13:50 in high school and has a 13:11 pr now along with a 3:55 mile. He did seem to have a bit of a down track season in 2023. Maybe they should check his serum ferritin level.

I think Nico has had a wonderful career, and Mike Smith has helped him manage things well. More high school superstars fall short of expectations in college than exceed them. By my very quick research, only 4 of the 16 guys to ever win NXN have gone on to finish top 10 at NCAA XC. Cole Sprout finished one step behind Nico in that 8:40 3200 their junior year. How many top 10 finishes does he have at NCAA XC?

What are you doing posting such a logical and well thought out answer here?

I 100% agree with the above. High school phenoms are by no means guaranteed college success. What Nico had accomplished under Smith is incredibly impressive and I believe it’s a result of exceptional talent paired with a coach who understands the mental side of the sport and the pressure that young runners are under.

Mike Smith has in no way failed Nico Young. Where do you guys come up with these posts? Do you know how impressive 4th, 11th, 2nd, and 6th at NCAA XC is? Good lord. The meet is the deepest XC race on the planet. To show up 4 years in a row like that is otherworldly.

Luis Grijalva NCAA XC finishes 60th, 23rd, 52nd, 9th

Abdi Nur NCAA XC finishes 33rd, 7th, 7th

I'm not writing Nico off until his track 10k debut this outdoor.

PS are we going to keep ignoring Nico's 3:54.00 and 3:37.7 and pretend he has no footspeed for a 5k/10k guy.

Does Nico have another year of eligibility because of the COVID year?

Yes, I expect him to use it. Not sure if it applies to all 3 seasons or just XC

He should just go pro tbh. Both him and NAU don't have much of a shot to win NCAA's next season. But I get it, there's nothing quite like running for a college team, so I understand if he wants to stick it out for one more year

NAU will be contenders again on both sides next year. The women have three seniors in Larkin, Reiss, and Van Pelt listed on the roster and they had a lot of B team depth this year to give them a good chance to replace those losses. The men have point scoring seniors in Las Heras, Bosley, Hasty, and Quax, which will be tough to replace. Nico Young would have to return, the Sahlman brothers emerge on the scene in xc (I have no doubt that Colin will be very good in track), and then have Kang Nyoak continue to emerge in his senior year along with Santiago Gomez-Prosser, Corey Gorgas and probably the freshman Zack Munson, who did well in limited action this year. That is enough for a podium team and they will likely bring in a couple of studs through recruiting and transfers. They do not have nearly enough right now to challenge OK State, but then who says that those guys will all continue at OK State? If they have Kipngetich, Musau, Messaoudi, Guadile, and Ryan Schoppe, they'll be under 50 again.

Mike Smith is great. After Dathan, I put him as the second best American distance coach.

Nico has been great. By any measure he has been a complete stud. He is always in the mix and always pushing the pace. He has 3 XC titles and is the best XC runner NAU has produced when looking at his entire body of work.

Nico will be a solid 10K guy and eventually a Marathon team guy.

Also.....drum roll....Mike Smith has kept Nico injury free and has prepared him for a professional career.

Also like Hasay, Young was probably already very close to his genetic potential coming out of high school. It has yet to be seen what his younger brothers can do at Stanford, but when you're already running sub 13:40 in HS, there might not be that much room left to grow.

Yesterday's winner, Graham Blanks, only ran 9:13.93 as an 11th grader and 9:04 before Covid wiped out his senior season. That's quite a bit slower than at least 7 Newberry Park guys have run over the last 5 years. Nico was training like a pro in High School. Go back and watch some of his workouts on youtube. I just don't think there was much room left for improvement for this kid.

Would OP agree Stanford failed Grant Fisher since he never won XC either?

What makes you believe Young trained harder than other elite HS runners and what about his 13:11?

Overtraining in HS can cause injuries but it’s not going to increase the rate of physical maturity.

You are WRONG. Nico absolutely trained harder than other elite high school runners and it is going to hurt his long term potential.

It takes a toll on your body. There's a reason why most high school sub 4 milers have really bad long term careers. Meanwhile you have slower guys like Centro, Hocker, and Nuguse that use amazing careers because they weren't burned out.

in cross country zero, however on the track Sprout has finished in the top 10 at NCAA's four times, compared to Nico's five.

Can you provide some examples of how hard Nico trained in HS? I’ve read he ran about 65mpw and certainly other runners have far more than that.

You didn’t respond to my question as to how he managed a big jump to 13:11, 2 years later.

If this is what failure looks like please sign me up. Nico is running amazing and so many variables go into winning a national championship. I’m a fan of Nico and Mike Smith. Nico is one of the toughest runners i’ve ever seen. Mike Smith manages him very well knowing all of us idiots place expectations on Nico that are so outlandish. Of course Nico should have (2) gold medals by now for the love of god. He graduated high school 3 years ago what is taking so long.