Who is the #1 US boys teenage distance prospect- C. or A. Sahlman, Leo, Lex or Nico Young, Parker Wolfe, or Hobbs Kessler?

BMeylan wrote:

birdbeard wrote:

Zane Bergen ... ? Not on NP's level in my view. But I like the guy.

I have no idea of Zane Bergen's current fitness level or ability.

But Zane Bergen did beat Aaron Sahlman at RunningLane 2021 by 4.47 seconds and lost to Colin Sahlman, Leo Young and Lex Young by only 4.42 to 6.62 seconds ... and also was "faster" than Dathan Ritzenhein's 14:10.4 XC mark ... Zane Bergen ran RunningLane XC in 2020 and was nearly 30 seconds faster in 2021.

Zane Bergen has an 800 meter PR of 1:51.26 (Colorado State Meet 2021) which is about 2 seconds faster than any of the Newbury Park guys at present.

Zane Bergen finished 2nd in the Mile at the Nike Outdoor Nationals last spring in Eugene, OR ...4:03.90, 2nd to Nathan Greene (4:03.30) with Gavin Sherry 3rd (4:07.20) ... Bergen's 3/4-mile split was 3:05.27.

Bergen def has cred. But he's lost to Hough at every turn. Why isn't Riley getting any love on here? A few strides behind the NP guys at Running Lane and he's all of a sudden not in the conversation?

I see sub 28:00 in his future. Kid's efficient with that loping stride...

Hobbs is the biggest talent of the group clearly. While these Newberry kids trained their ass off year in and year out together, Hobbs Kessler was climbing rocks and running the mile in his spare time. Also 3:34.

I'm always intrigued when I see a group of brothers or sisters that all of a sudden in high school are running ridiculous times. Basically NP is two sets of brothers. So naturally they just don't come out of nowhere in terms of running.

Turns out the mother of Aaron and Colin Sahlman was a two time State Champion in the 800m from Nebraska. Not a small detail to overlook. Looks like she went to Nebraska first but then transferred for some reason to Azusa Pacific in California. Still she ran 2:10 for 800m and 56.2 for 400m. Maybe she would have been even better in the mile/1500m. Can't find anything about their Dad athletically but probably has some athletic highlights too there.

I'm sure similar things may be found out about the Young brothers.

So much of being a great miler is in the genetics. If your Dad is slow and your Mom is slow no amount of training is going to get you to break 4 minutes or even 2 minutes in the 800... lol.

Nice!Thanks!

Not really fair representation of Hobbs as a 3:57 runner in your poll description of him. He ran 3:34 outdoor just after he turned 18 last year. Yes, his most recent result is an indoor 3:57, but he’s a few months removed from a 3:34 outdoor. It is that result that gives him the most potential out of that group.

not tea wrote:

Birthday? I doubt you know.

Reed Brown = Aug 8, 1998 (Cooper Teare for example from same graduating class was born Aug 18, 1999).

Colin is an October baby, so this is his last year as a U20.

Yes we know about Brown. October is a normal birthday if that is even correct

I’m surprised by the polls that only 5% currently are voting for Leo.

Leo beat Lex all cross country season. He won the Woodbridge invitational in 13:38 and he is also still 16 years old. I think if Leo and Lex weren’t twins they would each be on top of this poll or neck and neck with Kessler.

It's probably just because Leo hasn't run 7:57. It didn't sound like he was injured too badly, just that they were being cautious. Apparently he's back to doing workouts with the top guys, so I expect he's gonna be in sub-4/sub-8 shape by the next time they race. 

I can definitely see the argument that Leo may be the better prospect because he went from running 8:55 last year (when his brother went 8:43), to beating his brother consistently over the XC season. That kind of jump is massive, so if he's in similar shape to Lex now (8:33 3200), he's made a 23 second drop.

Hood Ornament wrote:

Much ado about nothing

….what

my mom and dad never ran a meter in their life and i ran 1.52 in high school in 1994

not tea wrote:

Yes we know about Brown. October is a normal birthday if that is even correct

10/28/2003

It’s listed in the article rojo links to as well as being referenced in rojo’s first post on this thread.

I think you misunderstood the poster. You can be an Olympic champ with your parents never having run a step. However the odds are that the Olympic champ has at least one parent who could have run well if they had tried.

Thanks. I see it in the article. That is a normal birthday for anyone trying to say that he is older. Sep 1 is the average starting birthday.

Bergen didn't lose to Hough at RunningLane and Hough didn't beat Ritz time there either. ....But it barely matters to your point and you are correct that Hough isn't getting any love here.

Taken together, it could be argued that if Wolfe, Hough, Bergen, and Kessler were part of a hypothetical Newberry Park team they would be even faster (Not to knock the coaching that these guys actually have which is very good)

In regards to Bergen, we'll soon see how he stacks up in Outdoor season.....But so far through his HS career, he's been faster than the Newberry Park guys in middle distance events. ....Not sure he can throw down a 3.57 though!

I just like lex more cuz he has cool hair and ran the 8:43 3200 last year and 14:27 5k. Leo is probably right there with him currently though. They just did that 3x1600 workout last night on Instagram live and the twins ran the whole thing together.

iw0lfy wrote:

I just like lex more cuz he has cool hair and ran the 8:43 3200 last year and 14:27 5k. Leo is probably right there with him currently though. They just did that 3x1600 workout last night on Instagram live and the twins ran the whole thing together.

What did they run in this workout? Any details on the whole team?

[quote]sbeefyk2 wrote:

I'm excited to see them compete at the World Junior Championships. Be interesting to see them in a race with mid to high 3:30s 1500 guys and mid 13:00s 5k guys. Even before that, the US Junior Championships to qualify for Worlds will be interesting.[/quot

I would absolutely love to see these athletes at World Juniors, but unfortunately Kenya will aways have the ability to put forth the type of athletes needed to win. On any given day, Kenya has hundreds of world class athlete whose names and ages are unverifiable. However, these kids are running fast enough to competitive.

Around 4:14-4:16 for all 3 reps.