NICO MF YOUNG

Beat by two different people (so far) wrote:

He has been beaten by two different people so far, and hasn't even raced Kiptoo and a few others. He's good but people need to take a chill pill. He's not head and shoulders above everyone else who has come through as a freshman. Chris Derek placed 3rd at an NCAA championship as a freshman, we all know how that turned out, never winning any NCAA title and didn't become the next great American distance runner. No guarantee at all that Nico will ever win a title.

Ok, but Derrick ran 13:08 & 27:31 and was 4th at the Olympic trials. Pretty damn good. Especially for a 6’2”, 160 lb+ guy. Not too many 6’2” dudes running those kinds of times or excelling at the marathon. Plus, there’s no question that the new shoe technology is really dropping times. It really is akin to taking a PED, but, it is what it is.

Everyone has the same shoes so what does that have to do with how Young will place?

27:31 is not a competitive time whatsoever

Dairyland wrote:

27:31 is not a competitive time whatsoever

Pretty sure you and any other letsrunner would take that all day long. Also, that race was the Olympic trials, not ideal conditions and not a time trial. Furthermore, with the new shoe technology, he would be closer to 27:00. At 6’2”. Pretty hard to do.

There are no conversions for height or weight. Sorry.

A few years back Chris Derrick told me he didn't get much sleep at Stanford as he was an Engineering major and took it pretty seriously. If I recall correctly, it was in the 5.5-6 hour range a night. Can't imagine that being the most optimal strategy to run your fastest time! Without knowing anything about it, I'd guess Nico doesn't have that demanding of a major or put in the hours that Chris did? So, I'm hoping we may see more development from him.

Craig Virgin ran 27:29 in 1980. Spikes are not giving anyone 30 seconds in a 10k. 27:31 does not get you anywhere near a medal

Hi wrote:

A few years back Chris Derrick told me he didn't get much sleep at Stanford as he was an Engineering major and took it pretty seriously. If I recall correctly, it was in the 5.5-6 hour range a night. Can't imagine that being the most optimal strategy to run your fastest time! Without knowing anything about it, I'd guess Nico doesn't have that demanding of a major or put in the hours that Chris did? So, I'm hoping we may see more development from him.

Yep, huge factor. Plus, Stanford is just a “slightly” better school than NAU, lol

Dairyland wrote:

Craig Virgin ran 27:29 in 1980. Spikes are not giving anyone 30 seconds in a 10k. 27:31 does not get you anywhere near a medal

Virgin was a legend. No debating that. He might’ve won gold but for the boycott in 1980.

But just look how much faster college kids are running now. Look at road races. Listen to people like Nick Willis. I think he said the “newer” aided spikes are worth like 1.5 seconds for 1200 meters? Plus, the training shoes themselves now make recovery from hard sessions easier. It’s the new PED. Cat is out of the bag, unfortunately.

Virgin was also the last world cross country champion from the US. Not really a fair comparison.

This isn’t about Chris Derrick. Someone brought him up as a high frosh finisher who never went anywhere in his career. Which is true. But there are several factors listed here plus the new shoes make everyone faster. That’s just a fact.

My neighbor played basketball at Stanford. He said that he did absolutely nothing and graduated with a 3.5 GPA.

Can you put it down solely to 'talent'? Have you seen the workouts that he was doing in High School? I can't imagine there are many HSers that have trained as hard as he has...

I'd put him closer to his maximum potential now than a lot of the names been mentioned on here were as freshman, so he's almost definitely not the most talented.

Nick Young wrote:

Can you put it down solely to 'talent'? Have you seen the workouts that he was doing in High School? I can't imagine there are many HSers that have trained as hard as he has...

I'd put him closer to his maximum potential now than a lot of the names been mentioned on here were as freshman, so he's almost definitely not the most talented.

The reason he ran incredible workouts is because he has incredible talent. Even though others run less impressive workouts, they push themselves just as hard.

Hard to understand why Nur, who won by .2, is hardly mentioned here. Nur only ran 4:27/9:26/15:30 in high school, so this is awfully impressive improvement. Young ran 4:10 in a workout, as well as 7:56.97.

As for Young, he was about 24 seconds better on the same course within a few weeks, and 20 seconds faster than Mantz from the previous race.

He is not American. And it doesn't matter what his times were in high school. It is irrelevant if he ran 3:50 or 4:50. The NCAA doesn't give out medals for improvement from high school.

Las Vegas wrote:

Milesplit has Silver State (Feb 1) as being run at Craig Ranch Regional Park in Las Vegas.

The USATF has today's Battle Born meet listed as being at...Craig Ranch Regional Park in Las Vegas.

How much was the course changed in the last 18 days?

It is a looped course, 2K loop I believe. Girls ran same course and did not all run much faster than at Silver State. It may be short, but I don't know we can say for sure it was shorter this week than a few weeks ago.

Oregony wrote:

He is not American. And it doesn't matter what his times were in high school. It is irrelevant if he ran 3:50 or 4:50. The NCAA doesn't give out medals for improvement from high school.

Nur most certainly is American.

Nick Young wrote:

Can you put it down solely to 'talent'? Have you seen the workouts that he was doing in High School? I can't imagine there are many HSers that have trained as hard as he has...

I'd put him closer to his maximum potential now than a lot of the names been mentioned on here were as freshman, so he's almost definitely not the most talented.

Have you seen how he trained? I'm guessing you were not a coach at his HS.

If you think watching a few workout videos online makes you qualified to know his HS training then I feel bad for you.

Nice try putting the kid down though

Tyrone ReXXXing wrote:

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

Yeah, but was he relaxed?