Young eclipses mark achieved at meet two years ago by older brother Nico, clocking 13:38.08, as Newbury Park takes top four spots all with sub-14 efforts in Doug Speck sweepstakes race to repeat as champions, complete sweep of titles with girls team

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

NORCO, Calif. – The superlatives just don’t seem to stop for the Newbury Park boys cross country team.

The descriptions really are that impressive as records and history are seemingly broken over and over again.

RESULTS | INTERVIEWS | RACE HIGHLIGHTS

In their first major competition of the season, the top-ranked Panthers continued to validate any discussion surrounding them being the best lineup in prep history by obliterating major marks and making a huge statement Saturday night in the Doug Speck sweepstakes race at the 40th Woodbridge Cross Country Classic presented by ASICS at SilverLakes Sports Complex in Norco, Calif.

Already the national champions from the last full season of competition in 2019, Newbury Park runners still found a way to elevate themselves again.

Relying on a 1-2-3-4 finish, they tallied a record-low 25 points for the win, far ahead of second-place Great Oak (190) and third-place Phoenix Desert Vista (207). Newbury Park won the 2019 sweepstakes with 36 points.

In doing so, the Panthers blew away their own team time record from two years ago, running a mark of 69 minutes, 30.9 seconds, lowering the previous mark from 71:13.7.

Leading the way was junior Leo Young, who broke his brother Nico’s national high school 3-mile all-time mark from two years ago by winning in 13:38.08. Nico Young, now competing at Northern Arizona, ran 13:39.7 at SilverLakes in 2019.

Aaron Sahlman was second in 13:42.22, Lex Young was third in 13:44.36 and Colin Sahlman was fourth in 13:47.95 for an unprecedented finish.

“The whole goal was to run as a team and do something that no one’s ever seen,” Leo Young said. “We were four guys going through the 2-mile mark going fast. It was fun. The whole thing was to go through that 2-mile mark and just have fun.”

And that was exactly how they played it. The four boys ran together until after that 2-mile mark, when they shifted into another gear to the finish. As impressive as their performance was the fact that all four were more than 20 seconds faster in their final mile than the first two.

While Leo Young ran the fastest, all four were within eight seconds of the previous all-time national prep mark.

“It was always my dream since Nico ran that to go after that time,” Colin Sahlman said. “I was close. It’s cool to be up around where he was. Especially with four of us at that level, it’s insane.”

Leo Young made sure that standard of excellence stayed in the family, looking strong as he sprinted to the finish. His final mile time of 4:16.69 was easily the fastest split of the race.

“Honestly, I had no clue. I didn’t think the record was in my cards,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘If we can get under 14 (minutes), maybe we’ll play with that 13:40 barrier. But we went through the 2-mile at 9:20, and I didn’t think it was even fathomable to go for that record. Then I came through (the finish line), and we had it. It was incredible.”

There had been some thought of Newbury Park waiting until next month’s Clovis Invitational to run their first meet at full strength.

Woodbridge, Leo Young said, has proven to be too important for the Panthers.

“The question was, I mean, was everyone healthy enough to really go for it? And I guess we decided we should. We weren’t sure; maybe we would’ve waited for Clovis (Invitational) to open up. ... Woodbridge is always a pretty special meet to us.”

And coach Sean Brosnan is looking for more this season.

There was a sizable gap between Colin Sahlman and the rest of the Newbury Park scorers, with Daniel Appleford running in the rated race as he continues to work his way back from illness. Hector Martinez finished 25th in 14:38.1 in Appleford’s absence in the sweepstakes lineup.

Brosnan likes what a healthy Appleford will add, calling a potential state-meet lineup including him “dangerous.”

“We have improving to do,” Brosnan said. “Our 5-6-7, our normal (No. 5) wasn’t there. We put him in the rated race, it was Daniel (Appleford). He had an illness. He’s over that now. He wasn’t injured, but he’s going to get stronger.”

The sweepstakes race’s fifth-place individual was junior Kevin Sanchez of Austin Vandegrift High in Texas. He broke the meet’s Texas all-time mark, previously set in 2016 by Reed Brown of Southlake Carroll, by more than five seconds in 14:05.98.

It was a benchmark race for Sanchez, who still had to watch four runners from the same team finish ahead of him. At the 2-mile mark, he was within a second of the quartet.

“It’s just surreal thinking that it’s not just any team, it’s Newbury Park,” Sanchez said. “It’s like, ‘Oh my God, they’re the top-ranked team in the country, and I’m staying right there with them.

“Of course, they broke me,” he added. “That’s just what they do.”

For 2021, Brosnan is looking at Woodbridge simply as the beginning.

“The goal is December, always December, for both our crews right now,” said Brosnan, who also celebrated the first girls sweepstakes championship in program history with a 124-130 victory over Flower Mound High from Texas.

“You know, our standards are high. These guys don’t want to be great. They want to be the best team ever.

“I talk to coaches and kids and all these people all the time,” Brosnan added later, “and they tell me, ‘I want to be great, and I want to be this, but they don’t want to do the work to do it.’ These guys want to do the work. I don’t want to hear if you want to be great, I want to hear what you’re going to do to get there. And these guys will do it. And they’ll sit with me and we’ll do everything. We’ll do every little thing we need to.”