Nico Young pushes to improve – and enjoy the moment
Northern Arizona University standout expected to contend for men's title in NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday
In a scenario that has occurred numerous times over the last four-plus years, Nico Young will be amongst the favorites when he toes the starting line for Northern Arizona University in the men’s race of the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Saturday morning.
But contrary to his prep days at Newbury Park High School in Southern California, when he laid the groundwork for the historically great program that has emerged there during the last two years, Young will be more appreciative of the moment and taking things in as they occur.
“That’s definitely something I’ve gotten a lot better at,” said Young, who wishes he had better relished his experience at Newbury Park in real time. “It can be hard to enjoy the process out of fear of losing my edge or being too content with what’s happening now. But I learned that you can have both. You can really enjoy the process, and enjoy the moment, and still want to be better.”
Wanting to be better has never been an issue for Young, who will lead No. 2-ranked Northern Arizona into the NCAA meet as the two-time defending champions and winners of five of the last six men’s titles.
His high school coach, who is now an assistant at UCLA, said in a March story about the Newbury Park program that Young had a burning desire to be the best at what he did and his drive and determination rubbed off on his teammates.
“He set the precedent and showed the kids what was possible because he was so dedicated,” said Sean Brosnan. “Now our kids come in and expect to run fast like him.”
Two of the runners who have followed in Young’s footsteps are his brothers, Leo and Lex, senior twins at Newbury Park who have both run under 4 minutes 2 seconds for the mile and under 8:40 for 3,200 meters, and are regarded by many as the top two boys cross-country runners in the nation.
Nico says Leo and Lex are the “two most important people in the world” to him, and he has learned much from the pair, despite being 2½ years older.
“Some of it is running-related,” Nico said of his brothers, who will continue their athletic careers at Stanford. “But I would say the majority of it is how they live their lives. They’re very non-judgmental people, and they live in a very free way that is really admirable. I try to be like them in that regard.”
Leo and Lex adore their older brother. They admire the way he cares for those around him and deeply appreciate all the running advice he has given them over the years. But they also respect him encouraging them to be true to themselves in how they conduct their lives.
“He’s been a tremendous influence on me,” Leo said. “He essentially paved the path for me when it comes to my running in high school. I can look in front of me and compare myself to where he was. He gives me tips on how I can train better and he tells me things he thinks he could have done differently in high school that might have helped him.”
Leo adds that Nico “also talks about not forgetting who you are. That you have to make sure your values come from you as a person, not just through your athletic achievements. That way you can enjoy every bit of it, and you can also enjoy the process too. . . If you’re enjoying your life, and you’re making yourself a better person, you’ll be able to become a better athlete.”
Lex characterizes Nico’s influence as “massive” and calls his older brother someone he can look up to and get advice from. He figures he and Leo could have gotten to where they are without Nico, but it would have been a different path because Nico made such an impact on him during his freshman year at Newbury Park.
“That was the first time I really saw someone that dedicated to something in everything they did,” Lex said. “Everything he did was influenced by his running. Like what he was choosing to eat, how long he was expecting to do his homework, how much sleep he was getting. Everything was influenced by his goal and that dedication inspired me.
Their mother, Lynne Young, says Nico has been a “really, really, incredible role model” for his brothers.
“He has a lot of influence over them,” she said. “He is just a massive resource of information. Whether it be diet related, or training related, or how to deal with social media.”
Cross country and track and field are two sports that quickly embraced the internet, perhaps because it provided coverage often lacking in newspapers and other media outlets in the U.S. But as Lynne cautions, people can be nasty online.
“They’re your best friend when you’re running well,” she added. “But they can be cruel when things don’t go well.”
Nico is as aware of this as any of the Youngs, for his performances have been scrutinized on various running sites ever since his sophomore track season at Newbury Park. That was when he first caught many people’s attention by running 9:05.17 in the 3,200 after entering high school as a 5-foot, 100-pound runner with a good – but not great – best of 5:02 in the 1,600.
That breakout track season was followed by a junior cross-country campaign in which he won the state Division II title while leading Newbury Park to the team championship. Then came a track season in which he won the state title in the 3,200 meters after moving to eighth on the all-time U.S. high school performer list with a winning time of 8:40.00 in the Arcadia Invitational.
“He was always very focused internally on what he was doing,” Lex said. “When it came to the message boards, he always said a lot of that stuff was noise and a lot of it wasn’t valid, and you shouldn’t take it seriously. That what matters are the people closest to you, your friends, your family, and your coach.”
Nico credits Brosnan for much of his success in high school, which included a course-record performance in leading Newbury Park to the team title in the 2019 Nike Cross Nationals meet in Portland, Oregon and a national high school indoor record of 7:56.97 in the 3,000 meters before the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of most of the 2020 outdoor track and field season.
He feels very fortunate to be at Northern Arizona, where the combination of an outstanding coach, Mike Smith, a championship-caliber group of runners, an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet in Flagstaff, and an abundance of dirt trails gives NAU what Young calls the best training environment in the country for collegiate distance runners.
Smith, who has guided the Lumberjacks to four first-place finishes and one runner-up performance in the NCAA Cross Country Championships since taking over the program, did not want to conduct any interviews in the two weeks prior to the NCAA meet so he and his runners could focus on the championships. But in previous interviews on the FloTrack site, he had referred to Young as a “special talent” and a “very rare athlete” with whom he was going to take a “long-term vision.”
That long-range view might be why Young has yet to run a 10,000-meter race on the track in college. At 6-feet and 140 pounds, Young has the build and stride that would appear to be tailor-made for the 10,000, but the 5,000 has been his primary track event since he came to NAU.
Not that he hasn’t exceled in that race. He lowered his personal best to 13:11.30 this past season to move to third on the all-time collegiate list, and placed third in the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships before finishing eighth in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships, all before he turned 20 in July.
In addition, he lowered his personal bests to 3:37.75 in the 1,500 meters and to 3:56.00 in the mile.
He was most proud of his 13:11.30 clocking in the 5,000 and his third-place finish in the NCAA outdoor meet. But he also took a lot of pride in his performance in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships as it came against the best runners in the nation, most of whom were post-collegiate competitors.
“That was the second-fastest 5K I’d ever run,” he said of his 13:19.15 effort. “I may have held my peak too long [following the collegiate season] and maybe didn’t have it in my legs to finish that race as hard as I wanted to, but I’m really proud of it. I think that was just another stepping stone forward for me so I can get to a place where I can have the fitness to run these fast times, but be strong enough and have enough years of training under my belt that I can close well off those faster races.”
Young, who is majoring in nutrition with a minor in biology, feels good about the season he has had heading into the NCAA meet.
He finished second to teammate Drew Bosley in the season-opening George Kite Classic in Flagstaff on Sept. 3 before placing fifth in the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater three weeks later.
He then finished second in the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 14 before posting a runaway victory in the Big Sky Conference Championships on Oct. 28 and finishing first in the Mountain Regional Championships last Friday when he and Bosley came across the finish line virtually together after running with each other throughout the race.
The Nuttycombe Invitational, which was 8,000 meters – nearly five miles – in length, was the most talent-laden collegiate race of the season thus far, and Young finished a tenth of a second behind winner Ky Robinson of Stanford.
Young had surged into the lead with 200 meters left in that race, but Australian Robinson, who initially fell back when Young made his move, edged into first place with about 100 meters remaining and maintained his advantage to the finish line.
“When I took the lead, I definitely thought, I could win this,” Young said. “But I was never sure I was going to win. I knew I had to stay on it. And then when I saw him, I knew it was going to be really hard.”
Young was NAU’s No. 2 runner when he placed 11th in the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida last November. But he was the Lumberjacks’ top finisher in March of last year when he placed fourth in the 2020 Championships that had been postponed for four months because of the pandemic.
That meet was contested on the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course, the same course that will host Saturday’s festivities, and Young is looking forward to racing against the top collegiate runners on a 10,000-meter layout that has a lot more hills than the one in Tallahassee.
“The course in Stillwater has so many hills that break it up; it’s a race that is harder a lot earlier,” Young said. “There are a lot more points during the race where you kind of have to talk your way through it because. . . you run up a hill and you’re extremely tired, but you have to trust that when you go down the next hill you’re going to feel better. . . Because of that, I feel like it’s a slower race, but a tougher race.”
Young expects that to play to the advantage of him and his teammates because training at altitude has made them very strong on the aerobic side of things. It also helps his confidence to know he ran so well on the same course in his first NCAA title meet.
Although Track & Field News tabbed Young and NAU as its men’s title favorites before the season, Young knows all that pre-season stuff means nothing at this stage of the year.
He is also of the opinion that winning an NCAA title in cross country is harder than winning one in track because in track many of the top runners are spread around in the 1,500 meters, 3,000-meter steeplechase, 5,000, or 10,000. In cross country, everyone is in the same race.
Because of that, it would be extra special for him to win the individual title on Saturday. But not as important as NAU winning a third consecutive team title and sixth in the last seven years.
“Sharing that experience with my team would be a lot more fulfilling and special than just winning myself,” Young said. “It’s always more fun to have the whole team involved. That’s the goal of everybody. We lift each other up, and in that way, it’s a much more fulfilling environment.”
Teams and runners to watch at NCAA Cross Country Champs
Stanford and North Carolina State will be favored to win the men’s and women’s team titles, respectively, when the NCAA Cross Country Championships are held at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Saturday morning.
The women’s 6,000-meter race will start at 10:20 a.m. ET, followed by the men’s 10,000-meter event at 11:10 a.m.
The Stanford men, who are expected to receive their biggest challenge from two-time defending champion Northern Arizona, BYU, and host Oklahoma State, are trying to win their first team title since 2003.
The North Carolina State women, led by individual title favorite Katelyn Tuohy, are looking to win their second consecutive team championship. The Wolfpack’s stiffest competition is expected to come from New Mexico, Oklahoma State, and Notre Dame.
There is no clear-cut favorite for the men’s individual title, but Nico Young of Northern Arizona, Charles Hicks and Ky Robinson of Stanford, Casey Clinger of BYU, Alex Maier of Oklahoma State, and Victor Kiprop of Alabama are among those runners expected to be in the hunt for first place.
Parker Valby of Florida is regarded as the woman with the best chance of challenging Tuohy, with 2020 champion Mercy Chelangat of Alabama, Taylor Roe and Natalie Cook of Oklahoma State, and Ceili McCabe of West Virginia among the other top entrants.
Thanks! I am now a Nico fan.