”One other thing you may have missed: in August, Young came out as gay. Considering there are very few openly gay male athletes at the elite college/professional level in the US, Young could get some mainstream media attention if he wins NCAAs this fall.”
IMHO, Tuohy has a better chance of winning the individual title than Young does. Because of that I find it interesting that the Wood Report has Tuohy as 4th and Young as 3rd. Young has a great chance but he has some really tough competition. Dylan Jacobs hasn't even run yet. I believe that he opens his season this upcoming weekend in Louisville at the Live in Lou XC Classic. As a team, Tennessee is going to be a darkhorse. Carlson is going to do a great job there.
Tuohy has some very hard competition as it is probably as tough as what Nico Young faces but I just have more confidence in her to win the women's overall than I do Nico to win the men's overall. I do believe that Sam Bush, at 9th, is still ranked too highly in the new Wood Report. I just don't see her finishing that high.
Prior to the start of the season, I would have predicted Bush around 20-25 at Nationals. But after seeing Bush run a 16:14 (5k) in the first race of the season at the Adidas Challenge, I can see Bush potentially somewhere in the range of 10-15 at Nationals. And Bush did finish 10th in the 5000m outdoor NCAAs a few months ago. She is on an upward trajectory.
I'm really excited to see what Tuohy runs in her first race. If she runs this Friday, I bet she goes under 16:00.
sub 16 would be a course record from what I can see. Kurgat and Kelati I think have run 16:01 recently
Tuohy is the easy favorite for sure. The way she developed last year and continued to improve. She slowly ticked off girl after girl in the NCAA.
Ok--I'll come back here to eat my words if I'm wrong, but why does Nico Young get this much gas? it just feels like he got lumped in with Tuohy because they both won a title together. But Katelyn was a once in a lifetime prodigy in HS. Nico was the 2019 National Champion, but no where near what Katelyn was (that's just a fact, not an insult to him). Is there something else I'm missing about him?
Katelyn is the favorite because she won an NCAA title in the 5K and had the fastest 1500 meter time in the NCAA in outdoors. Plus several of the other Natty champs have graduated and moved on like Wayment.
Nico has yet to win a title. It would be wild if the first individual title he won was an XC title.
Tuohy is the easy favorite for sure. The way she developed last year and continued to improve. She slowly ticked off girl after girl in the NCAA.
Ok--I'll come back here to eat my words if I'm wrong, but why does Nico Young get this much gas? it just feels like he got lumped in with Tuohy because they both won a title together. But Katelyn was a once in a lifetime prodigy in HS. Nico was the 2019 National Champion, but no where near what Katelyn was (that's just a fact, not an insult to him). Is there something else I'm missing about him?
Katelyn is the favorite because she won an NCAA title in the 5K and had the fastest 1500 meter time in the NCAA in outdoors. Plus several of the other Natty champs have graduated and moved on like Wayment.
Nico has yet to win a title. It would be wild if the first individual title he won was an XC title.
Agreed. When I look at his personal bests, its not that impressive and he only won few races and broke few course records. I get the hype around Tuohy but never with Nico Young.
Nico did a number on the NXN field in pretty sloppy conditions in winning in 2019 and setting a course record. Of course the course was in considerably worse shape for the girls race which followed.
Ok--I'll come back here to eat my words if I'm wrong, but why does Nico Young get this much gas? it just feels like he got lumped in with Tuohy because they both won a title together. But Katelyn was a once in a lifetime prodigy in HS. Nico was the 2019 National Champion, but no where near what Katelyn was (that's just a fact, not an insult to him). Is there something else I'm missing about him?
Maybe it's because he's the fastest 19 year old over 5000m in American history?? And his NXN win in 2019 was one of the greatest and most dominant HS XC performances of all time.
Tuohy is the easy favorite for sure. The way she developed last year and continued to improve. She slowly ticked off girl after girl in the NCAA.
Ok--I'll come back here to eat my words if I'm wrong, but why does Nico Young get this much gas? it just feels like he got lumped in with Tuohy because they both won a title together. But Katelyn was a once in a lifetime prodigy in HS. Nico was the 2019 National Champion, but no where near what Katelyn was (that's just a fact, not an insult to him). Is there something else I'm missing about him?
Katelyn is the favorite because she won an NCAA title in the 5K and had the fastest 1500 meter time in the NCAA in outdoors. Plus several of the other Natty champs have graduated and moved on like Wayment.
Nico has yet to win a title. It would be wild if the first individual title he won was an XC title.
Nico finished 4th as a freshman, the same as Ritz. In fact, he placed higher in both NCAA XC finals than Tuohy, even though a lot of people thought he didn't run that well last year.
Nico finished 4th as a freshman, the same as Ritz. In fact, he placed higher in both NCAA XC finals than Tuohy, even though a lot of people thought he didn't run that well last year.
the ncaa xc nationals was katelyn's first ever xc race in college and she had knee surgery 8 months prior to the race and only started training in january that year .. and then raced in march and finished 24th
Ok--I'll come back here to eat my words if I'm wrong, but why does Nico Young get this much gas? it just feels like he got lumped in with Tuohy because they both won a title together. But Katelyn was a once in a lifetime prodigy in HS. Nico was the 2019 National Champion, but no where near what Katelyn was (that's just a fact, not an insult to him). Is there something else I'm missing about him?
Maybe it's because he's the fastest 19 year old over 5000m in American history?? And his NXN win in 2019 was one of the greatest and most dominant HS XC performances of all time.
I'll give you the 5K PR, sure, but "most dominant" is an interesting choice to describe Nico Young. I think the most dominant HS XC performances mostly if not all---belong to Tuohy.
Maybe it's because he's the fastest 19 year old over 5000m in American history?? And his NXN win in 2019 was one of the greatest and most dominant HS XC performances of all time.
I'll give you the 5K PR, sure, but "most dominant" is an interesting choice to describe Nico Young. I think the most dominant HS XC performances mostly if not all---belong to Tuohy.
Amber Trotter did win FL by 40 seconds (hot/humid conditions). Melody Fairchild did win FL by 59 seconds (setting current course record) in 1990. Pretty dominant as well I would say. There may be others as well.
I'll give you the 5K PR, sure, but "most dominant" is an interesting choice to describe Nico Young. I think the most dominant HS XC performances mostly if not all---belong to Tuohy.
Amber Trotter did win FL by 40 seconds (hot/humid conditions). Melody Fairchild did win FL by 59 seconds (setting current course record) in 1990. Pretty dominant as well I would say. There may be others as well.
Yep. A bit weird to describe a 14ish second win as the most dominant HS XC performance when there are ones like this out there.
1) it will be good to see where Tuohy is at this weekend...she looks very fit. Hopefully she is healthy to start this XC season.
2) there will be some strong competition for Tuohy this year....Mercy, Roe, Valby, and from her own team (Starliper and Chmiel). But as someone earlier suggested, I would not bet against a healthy Tuohy in XC...especially after the outdoor season she had.
3) Cook had a great first race...and I do hope she keeps it up (so nice to see a top level HS runner come to NCAA uninjured)....but in my mind this doesn't warrant a top 10 ranking yet. Maybe by the time she gets to Nationals...but one race simply isn't enough.
