TLDR: I'm not trying to be dismissive of your concerns, but I think Nico may honestly just be a true ectomorph with runway-model cheekbones.
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.
Threads like this are so silly. They completely miss and fail to understand the complexities of coaching and winning championships. Once the OP has taken "only" second in D1 XC, how about coming back on here and explaining how and why you didn't win that race, or win the following year.
He seems to have better leg speed now but it's tough to win a NCAA title (understatement) I just think his type of runner will be doomed to never win a high level meet - not enough of a kick and will never be in the shape where he can either run away from the rest of the field like Cheruiyot in 2019 or be fit enough that he can run ~7:35 from the front and still have a kick remaining
He seems to have better leg speed now but it's tough to win a NCAA title (understatement) I just think his type of runner will be doomed to never win a high level meet - not enough of a kick and will never be in the shape where he can either run away from the rest of the field like Cheruiyot in 2019 or be fit enough that he can run ~7:35 from the front and still have a kick remaining
No human being in history has kicked off of 7:35 pace for a 5000m.
7x1k on a hard XC loop (even Brosnan called it very challenging and hilly) averaging 2:48......IN AUGUST.
He looked like he was going 100% effort the whole time.
I've run at the park that they were doing that workout, the course is not very hilly and is entirely dirt and cement and asphalt (at least the part they are running on). It's a very gradual uphill for the first 80% with a tiny dip for a sewer and then a steep downhill near the end.
Not exactly a track, but his paces are still insane for a flat XC course.
That course for the 7x1k was primarily on thick grass and described by Brosnan as not particularly fast.
I’m still not sure people understood what I was trying to say here. I said that Nico has had a tremendous career with fantastic PRs (now even more fantastic) and Mike Smith is a great coach. However, he lacks an individual title. To say Mike Smith has failed him would be an exaggeration, and one that I used to get people talking, but my question still stands. If Nico leaves without an individual title, did the duo underachieve/is this a black eye on his college career?
