He probably just decided that it was better for him long-term to take a break after NCAAs and have a longer build into the cross country season. He's talked about struggling with injury issues that have held back his training a bit in the past few months, so maybe he wanted a longer stretch to work on that without having to be race-sharp at any time during that period. Nico has competed at USA's the past two summers, so it's not as though extending his season ~3 weeks extra to compete this year would give him some big experience that he's never had before.
Word around flagstaff is that Mike smith has gotten into hypnosis, but doesn’t know how to flip the switch and it’s starting to affect his athletes. He instructed Nico to have short term memory and go sleep right after his NCAA 5k loss, and nico’s brain took it all to seriously.
I don't think he's in much better shape now (probably worse tbh) than he was last year, so I doubt he'll gain anything useful. Probably better to shut down the season early and prep for XC since he's now the top returner.
As someone who raced a couple times against a younger brother, you never push yourself harder than when you're trying to beat them. Given Nico's 4th place his freshman year, Lex's 13:34 being 15s faster than Nico in HS, and Leo being better than that, it's not inconceivable that Nico could lose to one of them if he has an off day and they have a great day. The twins are in Flagstaff training rn, so Nico's gotta stay on the grind.
Nico has a chance to win 4 XC team titles in a row. that's an incredible feat. it's like being the starting qb for 4 national championship teams in a row.
i think only Arkansas in the early 90's and UTEP in the 70's won 4 in a row and I'm not sure if any runners from those teams were there for all 4.
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