Newbury Park CA standout, Northern Arizona signee is lone prep athlete in elite men’s field at The Armory, pursuing national high school and American U-20 indoor records

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Nico Young will have the least amount of indoor track experience of any athlete competing in the Dr. Sander men’s 3,000 meters at the 113th NYRR Millrose Games.

But the Newbury Park CA senior hopes his string of impressive performances in big races during the past two years will provide enough preparation for the most significant challenge of his high school career Saturday at The Armory in New York.

SATURDAY'S NYRR MILLROSE GAMES VIEWING INFO | NICO YOUNG PRE-MEET INTERVIEW

Young, the reigning Nike Cross Nationals champion, is the lone prep athlete entered in a field that includes two of the elite collegiate distance runners in Iowa State’s Edwin Kurgat and Colorado’s Joe Klecker, along with international talents Paul Tanui of Kenya, Justyn Knight of Canada and Jordan Gusman of Malta, as well as American standouts Eric Avila, Hillary Bor, Travis Mahoney and Hassan Mead.

Newbury Park coach Sean Brosnan, who guided the Panthers to their first NXN team title along with Young’s individual victory Dec. 7 at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Ore., will also have senior All-American Jace Aschbrenner competing Saturday in the New Balance boys mile.

“It all came together pretty quick, but I was really excited when he told me I would have a chance to get into this race because I’m really honored,” Young said. “It’s going to be really fun.”

Young has competed only once since NXN, clocking 3 minutes, 52.39 seconds in an outdoor 1,500-meter race Jan. 25 at Arcadia High, site of his impressive 8:40 victory in the 3,200 at last year’s Arcadia Invitational.

Young, a Northern Arizona signee, covered the final 600 meters of his 2020 opener in 90 seconds.

“It was really encouraging, definitely knowing my closing ability, because I know that race is going to close really fast,” Young said. “I want to be ready to close pretty quickly, too.”

For the first time since last year’s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, when Young placed eighth in 4:14.92 in the junior boys mile, he won’t be expected to lead Saturday’s race.

“I think he’s excited not to have to lead. I think that’s a good thing. He wants to just sit and go and race with the guys. I think it’s such a professional race that you’re hoping there’s not a lot of pushing and shoving, maybe in the very beginning, but then he can just sit and wait,” Brosnan said. “It’s a matter of putting himself in a good position and just closing. I’ve seen him close and he’s ready. I want him to get used to the idea of closing in 1:30 when he’s tired and even though we had a heavy week of training before the race at Arcadia and he fell asleep in the middle, he still did that.”

The winning time of the Millrose Games men’s 3,000 last year was Grant Fisher of Stanford clocking 7:42.62, leading 11 athletes under the 8-minute mark. Two years ago, all 11 finishers ran under 7:50, with 12 athletes achieving the feat in 2016.

The last time the race didn’t produce double-digit athletes with sub-8 performances was 2015.

“We’ve watched every year’s race since it moved to The Armory at least 10 times, and it’s all the same scenario,” Brosnan said. “I think he’ll be fine. Ironically, people might think it’s weird, but I think the pace needs to be fast in order for him to succeed. The faster it is, the more it will string out and there will be less traffic.”

In addition to his performance two weeks ago at Arcadia, Young also gained reassurance during a Jan. 30 track workout, when he ran 1,600 meters followed by three minutes rest, an 800 with two minutes rest after, another 1,600 with a three-minute rest period and a final 800.

His splits were: 4:10-2:06-4:15-2:06.

“It definitely sets me up really well for the race to get used to those paces that I’m going to be expecting to run when I get there,” Young said. “It made me really confident after that workout to be prepared.”

Young ran 8:13.31 in an outdoor 3,000 meters last year, followed by an 8:11.02 split en route to his 3,200 victory in April at Arcadia. But his increased levels of strength and endurance, combined with the elite competition, have him in position to become only the third prep athlete to eclipse the 8-minute mark.

Drew Hunter of Loudoun Valley VA holds the national high school indoor 3,000 record at 7:59.33 from the 2016 Camel City Elite meet and former Riverbank CA standout German Fernandez clocked 7:59.83 outdoors in 2008 en route to setting what was then the national prep 2-mile record of 8:34.40 at Nike Outdoor Nationals.

“Definitely being consistent is super important, so just making sure that I’m there every day doing everything I can makes me really confident going into the race,” Young said. “When I go there, I’ll run my own race and try not to (overanalyze the competition).”

With a fast pace, if Young can hang on during the final laps and close strong, he also has an opportunity to challenge the American U-20 indoor record of 7:56.31 achieved in 2009 by former Stanford star Chris Derrick, who also served as commentator during the Webcast of the boys championship race at NXN.

“He needs to put himself in a good position at the mile, then relax and hold it. It’s going to be really hard, but with 600, he’s got to start moving,” Brosnan said. “He might be getting passed, but he’s still going fast. They’re going 1:27 in that last 600 and he might be going 1:31, but that’s still OK. He’s going for it. Even if he doesn’t get it and runs 7:58, that’s still incredible.”

For Young, in addition to gaining more indoor track experience before he transitions to college training in Flagstaff, Ariz., having a specific goal to pursue Saturday, much like he did at NXN, has only added extra motivation in recent weeks.

“It definitely has fueled my workouts coming up to this race and inspired me to run that time,” Young said. “It will be a nice race, I think.”

And perhaps a historic one, as many of Young’s performances were during the fall along Newbury Park’s journey to a national championship.

Although Aschbrenner is looking forward to racing against an elite high school mile field approximately 90 minutes before Young competes Saturday, the Colorado signee couldn’t contain his excitement when it came to the prospect of his teammate making another memorable mark on the sport at the mecca of indoor track.

“It’s almost been kind of surreal because you see all these people in the heat and it’s like Olympic medalists and World Championship medalists, and then you see my future teammate, my future volunteer assistant coach, like Joe Klecker and Riley Masters are in the race as well,” Aschbrenner said. “And it’s just kind of crazy to see that, ‘Dang, Nico is on that level.’ I think if everything goes well for him, Nico is probably going to be vying for an NCAA title or some sort of professional future in the next couple of years and that’s going to be really cool.”