Nico Young Dominant

That was crazy. Nico’s first college XC win.

Santiago Prosser's not in the results. Stanford had 6 (out of ten runners in the conference) sub-23 at Pac 12s, so I'm afraid this isn't going to be enough. But 10k's a different beast, so it remains to be seen. NAU is looking like a top 3 team behind Stanford and BYU, but OK State is also looking very strong with Isai Rodriguez back and Maier a title contender.

Nico YOUNG
Northern Arizona
22:31.5
1
SO
2
Drew BOSLEY
Northern Arizona
22:57.1
2
JR
3
Duncan HAMILTON
Montana State
23:05.0
3
SR
4
Brodey HASTY
Northern Arizona
23:14.7
4
JR
5
George KUSCHE
Northern Arizona
23:23.2
5
SR
6
Ben PERRIN
Montana State
23:23.9
6
SO
7
Colin SAHLMAN
Northern Arizona
23:35.9
7
FR
8
Matthew RICHTMAN
Montana State
23:39.6
8
JR
9
Ryan RAFF
Northern Arizona
23:43.3
9
SR
10
Theo QUAX
Northern Arizona
23:46.6
10
JR
11
Cooper WEST
Montana State
23:59.2
11
SR
12
Jordan MACINTOSH
Portland State
24:02.5
12
SR
13
Rob MCMANUS
Montana State
24:04.2
13
SO
14
Bronson WINTER
Weber State
24:08.3
14
JR
15
Lorenz HERRMANN
Idaho
24:15.5
15
SO
16
Kang NYOAK
Northern Arizona
24:20.7
SO

Are watching the beginning of a new Nico Young? I have to admit it was awesome watching him run like this! I hope Smith let’s him go after the individual title at Nats! He’s a beautiful runner and needs his NCAA title.

Sahlman scores again

Is Nico sort of a Conner Mantz without the Mission, meaning younger but just as tough?

Did Santiago run?

How does the course compare? Bosley was only behind Hicks and Robinson at nuttycombe and he barely ran sub 23 today. I suppose so did Robinson, but I don't think drew was losing to 6 Stanford kids today

Good point about 10k is a different challenge. Idk who this favors, but keep in mind it isn’t just 10k, it is 2 x 10k over 7 or 8 days unless a guy gets to skip regionals or “jog” regionals.

NAU will be facing BYU and CO at Mountain Regionals . . . only 2 auto qualify . . . so expect legit competition amongst may of the runners on those teams to avoid 3rd place although 3r will get a wild card to NCAAs.

Stanford, on the other hand, will have a cake-walk at West Regionals . . . fully expect one, maybe two, of their younger guys -- maybe DiDonato, maybe Topper -- to sit out to prepare for NCAAs . . . while the top-6 of Hicks-Sprout-Robinson-Meika- Hart-Boyden can set it to cruise control and essentially tempo it in for a group around 10th place . . . maybe even come in 2nd to OR but so what . . . Stanford will have no problem being "rested" for NCAAs.

Having stated all this, right now there appears to be no clear favorite amongst Stanford, OK St, BYU and NAU for the title. All have front running studs and plenty of quality depth. NAU and BYU are the recent NCAA team champs, BYU has a really tight pack, OK St has home course "advantage" (if such a thing exists for xc), and Stanford has the overwhelming track talent led by three 27:40 - 27:44/10k guys.

Highly unlikely, but possible . . . submitted for your consideration . . . all four teams under 100 points at NCAAs?!

Course was 8000m. It was cold and windy. Wouldn’t call it slow, but wouldn’t have classified as a fast course either….so this was an unbelievable performance, just straight up thumped a number of highly talented dudes.

Young always seems to do really well in cold conditions. Hoping the weather at nationals will work out for him.

I am assuming that Bosley is ready to run top ten at NCAA again, even though he was 25 seconds back of Young. We almost never saw sub 23s before 2021, so it's amazing how many there were today at conference meets. Young looks ready to challenge for the title, as does Hicks, who is very tough and a really good xc racer--as evidenced not only by the 4th last year but also winning Euro under 23 xc. NAU ran very well here. It was good to see Kusche and Hasty, as well as Quax running very well. However, I just wonder how they can match a team with 3 very low sticks in Stanford, plus quality depth. NAU appears to have the ability to get 10 points total from Young and Bosley, but then there appears to be a sizeable gap, possibly into the 20s. Colorado has very good depth but only one potential top ten guy. Of course, Wetmore and Smith know how to coach for 10k nationals and their teams seem to overachieve at nationals relative to previous meets. It wasn't long ago that I saw Grijalva and another guy fading at a practice before nationals, and then they had Young, Nur, and Grijalva in the top eight for a dominant win.

And Blaise Ferro in 6th!

Ragf and Quax are the chronic underperformers on the big XC stage

And people say CBA kids do nothing in college

He is be the best 20 yr old in America and will make a world final someday. But we cannot celebrate here - this is his competition at 20y:

//

worldathletics.org

Tadese WORKU | Profile | World Athletics

Open link

If you think that guy in that picture is actually 20 years old, I have a bridge to sell you.