Young eclipses course record by running 14:52.3 and gives California male athletes back-to-back titles, becoming first competitor to sweep individual and team championships since 2007

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

PORTLAND – Nico Young ran away from an exceptional field of challengers to secure the boys individual title Saturday, producing a course record on a muddy, rain-soaked layout at Glendoveer Golf Course at Nike Cross Nationals.

For Newbury Park XC, it couldn’t have been much closer during the final steps of its journey to a national team championship.

BOYS RACE REPLAY | RESULTS

Young, who clocked 14 minutes, 52.3 seconds, and fellow senior Jace Aschbrenner (15:29.1) combined to score four team points in the 5-kilometer final to both earn All-America honors for Newbury Park, but Great Oak – competing as Temecula XC – mounted an impressive rally in the final 3 kilometers to set the stage for a dramatic conclusion to a season-long battle for supremacy among the California state divisional champions.

When the announcement was finally delivered, Newbury Park had managed to overcome Great Oak’s five scorers being separated by a 10-second gap to prevail by a 128-132 margin, matching the second-lowest spread among the top two boys teams in meet history.

Corner Canyon UT, competing as Draper XC, was led by a 38th-place finish from senior Easton Allred (15:42) to place third with 142 points, marking the third time the entire boys podium was separated by less than 15 points in the meet’s 16-year history.

Only a 125-127 victory by Neuqua Valley IL over Los Alamos NM in 2007 produced a tighter outcome than Newbury Park’s triumph, which equaled the narrow margin in the 91-95 win achieved by Christian Brothers NJ over Southlake Carroll TX in 2011.

“Super nervous,” said Young, upon awaiting for the final scores to be revealed on the awards podium.

“We did not know. It was so close. It was super hard to tell the placings when people were coming in, so I was pretty nervous and worried, but we came out on top.”

Aschbrenner’s 18th-place finish, but third in the team scoring, helped Newbury Park build a 39-point advantage over Great Oak through both teams’ first two runners. Sophomore Colin Sahlman (15:51.9) placed 53rd for Newbury Park, edging Great Oak’s Gabe Abbes by one-tenth of a second in 54th and Aric Reza by less than three seconds in 59th, placing the pressure on Temecula XC to mount a memorable comeback in pursuit of its second national title in five years.

Although John Worthy (15:56) and Leandro Candray (15:58.3) were 62nd and 63rd, with Mateo Joseph earning the anchor award as the top No. 5 runner in the field by placing 72nd in 16:02.5, Great Oak endured a runner-up finish for the second year in a row after suffering a 77-114 setback to two-time champion Loudoun Valley VA – competing as Purcellville XC – last season. Loudoun Valley’s bid for the first boys three-peat in meet history ended Saturday with a 10th-place finish with 255 points.

“At the end of the day, you focus on the journey and some days it comes for the better, some days it comes for the worse and some days by four points,” said Abbes, who competed at NXN for the first time since 2017 after missing last year’s meet with an Achilles’ injury.

“We were going to work as hard as we could and we were going to make sure if anybody beat us, they’d have to go through hell for it. They definitely worked hard. All props to Newbury Park. Obviously we wanted a little more, we came for a little more and we got a little less.”

Newbury Park was able to hold on – with Nick Goldstein (16:16.2) and Daniel Appleford (16:17.8) placing 95th and 100th – to become the third California boys team to capture an NXN championship. Arcadia won in 2010 and 2012, with Great Oak prevailing in 2015.

“These guys came to me in June and said they wanted to win a state title again and they wanted to win a national title. We put it down on paper and we said, ‘This is what it takes and this is what we’ve got to do,’” said Newbury Park coach Sean Brosnan, whose group improved from last year’s sixth-place finish at nationals.

“Every day they showed up and did everything possible. Sometimes it doesn’t always work out and today could have gone either way, but it went in our favor. We had a little luck and a lot of hard work, but I’m so proud of them, words can’t even describe. It was hard to take in and it was a surprise to us because it could’ve gone either way, but I truly love these guys. It’s been a great experience with a group of great guys.”

Despite Young building an eight-second gap over Hersey IL senior Josh Methner by the 2-mile mark, he needed one more decisive surge in the final kilometer to not only secure the championship following a fourth-place finish last season, but become the second straight California male athlete to earn the title.

“Toward the end of the second mile, I was getting pretty tired, but I trusted in my ability and I trusted in my training and what I’ve been doing all season and I knew I had more left,” said Young, who eclipsed the course-record 14:57.6 established by last year’s winner Liam Anderson of Redwood Larkspur, Calif.

“I knew I had to make sure I was as prepared as I could. I didn’t know how the competition and everything would be.”

Methner remained in second for the majority of the race, clocking 15:06.1, with Caleb Brown of Shelby Senior, Ohio, rallying from eighth with a mile left to place third in 15:08.3.

But once the individual battle was decided, Young shifted his energy and focus toward his teammates, looking to prevail in the winner-take-all third matchup this season involving Newbury Park and Great Oak.

“We train tough, we work hard and we were just able to push through it,” Aschbrenner said. “It’s not who is used to it, it’s who is tough and who can make it through the race.”

When Brosnan took over the program in 2016, Newbury Park placed ninth in the Division 1 state final that season, more than 200 points behind Great Oak.

After Newbury Park missed the state championship meet the following season, it was moved to Division 2 last year and took advantage of the opportunity to capture back-to-back section and state titles.

But even if it couldn’t compete against Great Oak for a state title the past two seasons, Brosnan and his athletes always remained ambitious about the opportunity to challenge Temecula XC, a five-time NXN qualifier, with a national championship on the line.

Those aspirations became reality Saturday, helping Young become the first male athlete to capture individual and team titles in the same year since Chris Derrick of Neuqua Valley IL in 2007, in addition to California becoming the first state to sweep the top two team spots in the boys final. Great Oak also became the first boys team from California to secure three podium finishes.

“Everything I’ve worked for since I first showed up on Newbury Park High School’s campus, it’s finally all come together to this moment,” Aschbrenner said.