NICO MF YOUNG

Kennedy won as a frosh

jim lindgren wrote:

Kennedy won as a frosh

I'm aware of that, which is why I said since Ritz. Goucher was 2nd as a frosh in 1994. So BK, Goucher, and Ritz all had dominant wins at FL and finished top 5 as freshmen. Withrow finished top 10 and Solinsky just missed. Nico had a dominant win at NXN and has the chance to be top 5.

smoster wrote:

GFR wrote:

Is Nico the most talented American XC runner since Ritz? Ritz finished 4th as a frosh, Solinsky finished 11th, as did Fernandez. Who else? Obviously will need to see what happens at nationals.

I guess Ches doesn’t count since he is somehow still not a citizen.

Puskedra was like 5th or 6th I think. Don’t remember what Derrick was. Teg I think was 8th and then 5th at world junior xc (behind Ritz and Bekele).

I think Derrick was 8th his freshman year (or right around there).

Earlier poster says that Fernandez finished 11th as a frosh...IIRC (and I do) he was running in something like 5th place when he ruptured his achilles tendon and didn't finish the race.

cramister wrote:

If Nico places high he’ll have to hear about how the field was watered down for a year till he does it again

The field will be watered down, regardless of where he places. That's a fact independent of his result.

sadfasdf wrote:

I think Derrick was 8th his freshman year (or right around there).

Earlier poster says that Fernandez finished 11th as a frosh...IIRC (and I do) he was running in something like 5th place when he ruptured his achilles tendon and didn't finish the race.

German was injured but no ruptured achilles. He went on to run 7:47 and 3:55 indoors and 13:25 outdoors. What an amazing talent! If only he would have had more staying power.

steeplepeople wrote:

sadfasdf wrote:

I think Derrick was 8th his freshman year (or right around there).

Earlier poster says that Fernandez finished 11th as a frosh...IIRC (and I do) he was running in something like 5th place when he ruptured his achilles tendon and didn't finish the race.

German was injured but no ruptured achilles. He went on to run 7:47 and 3:55 indoors and 13:25 outdoors. What an amazing talent! If only he would have had more staying power.

Well whatever it was that caused him to stop 8km into the race. Thought it involved his achilles.

Great run by Young. He was so close to beating Nur. Nur is no joke. He has run a 7:57 before and also 14:18 for 5000m

Herrera is in lifetime best form and 100% healthy. He's run a 4 minute mile, I think spring 2019, so he has speed to be a top 5 threat also. I don't think course is short, but it sure is blazing fast - best to compare runners and time gaps.

Oregony wrote:

Herrera was right behind Young and his PR is 13:57.

Young and his teammate ran together for the win. They didn't have to beat Herrera by a large margin and they didn't . They did their job.

Check out Sam Chelanga's pre nats race. THAT was a 22:30. Great memories.

You missed the point. Herrera is a 13:50 type 5k guy but people were saying the course was accurate because a 13:17 guy can run the times they ran today based on that. But Herrera ran the same time and he is not a 13:20 guy so the course was short.

newbury xc wrote:

Yeah I'm a fan of Nico and all, but this course was definitely short. I think there were something like 10 people under 23 minutes. However, I don't think the one a few weeks ago (Silver State Invite) was short.

Same course, no? Cole Sprout back there in 9th. He’s a stud too but Young had quite a gap on him?

My point is Herrera may now be running like a 1330 guy. Crazy long covid block since last real race, and he gutted out 2019 xc with injury. Florida was his best ever xc result, and now he backed it up today in LV.

I don't really look at times. My takeaway is that both Nur and Young are running great. Grill will be fine and Herrera looks to have a great senior year.

Derrick went 7th, 3rd, 5th and 2nd in his four NCAA cross country championships from 2008 to 2011.

I talk to Nico he was tempoing it. He said he has 10 more seconds per mile in the bank

Funny that he told me that was the most grueling race of his lifetime and he didn't think he could replicate it.

Nico is winning the national title. 4-5 years from now his younger brother will also win NCAA XC title. It will be the first time ever two brothers win individual XC titles.

His younger brother has a 14:27 5000m PR as a HS sophomore!

sadfasdf wrote:

steeplepeople wrote:

German was injured but no ruptured achilles. He went on to run 7:47 and 3:55 indoors and 13:25 outdoors. What an amazing talent! If only he would have had more staying power.

Well whatever it was that caused him to stop 8km into the race. Thought it involved his achilles.

The crazy part of that whole thing was he was flying at the time. He and his other OSU teammates went out super conservatively and were WAY back at 5K (10 sec feels like forever). He and his teammate Kosgei were flying by people from 5-7.5K. When he fell to the side and grabbed his leg, he was already in the 4-7 place group of guys already (that included Puskedra and Derrick). Kosgei ended up 8th, 7 seconds behind 3rd place.

Given Fernandez’s gap over Kosgei at Big 12 & regionals, I have no doubt he would’ve been 3rd place that day. The gap to Rupp and Chelanga would’ve been too much, though.

Did yall forget Alan Webb?

2nd at regional behind NCAA champ Boaz C., ran in top 5- 7 at Champs the next week, faded a bit late in race for 11th ...I think. Great result, but I think he could have gotten top 5-7 if he ran as well as he did previous weeks and/or went out a little more conservatively