Nico Young Dominates NXN Boys Race, Leads Team To Victory

* Photo Credit: Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports

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After an absolutely dominating senior season in California, Newbury Park's Nico Young left no doubt on Saturday at Nike Cross Nationals, winning in a new meet record of 14:52.23, 12 seconds faster than his fourth-place finish from a year ago.

Young began to pull away from the gun. His first kilometer split of 2:50 was slightly ahead of Josh Methner and Ryan Schoppe, as both boys led the chase pack. Young would continue to pull away, coming through the mile 3 seconds ahead of the field, two mile 8 seconds ahead of the field, and continue to drive through the third mile, winning by an unprecedented 16 seconds over Methner and Ohio's Caleb Brown.

Today's mark was Young's third sub-15:00 of the season in three tries to go along with two sub-14:00 3 mile performances and two more sub-14:10's. 


The individual national champion also helped his Newbury Park squad to a team victory. A mere 14 points separated the top three teams and only four points separated the top 2 as Newbury Park scored 128 to Temecula (Great Oak (CA))'s 132. Draper (Corner Canyon (UT)) scored 142.