Daily News Outstanding Spring Senior: Newbury Park’s Nico Young, boys track and field
Blog June 27, 2020
The Los Angeles Daily News is selecting an Outstanding Senior from each of the spring sports as a way to honor some of the top student-athletes who didn’t get a chance to have a normal and complete final high school season because of COVID-19.
Boys Track and Field Outstanding Senior: Nico Young, Newbury Park
It might be hard to believe now, but there was a time when Newbury Park’s Nico Young wasn’t the nation’s best high school distance runner.
Two years ago, the only postseason track and field meet Young won was the Marmonte League championships, where he triumphed in the 3,200 meters. However, there were plenty of clues that year that Young had the potential to be an exceptional runner.
He finished fourth in the 3,200 in Division 1 at the CIF Southern Section Finals and the Masters Meet. The sophomore capped his season by finishing 15th in a talented field at the CIF State meet.
That’s when the breakthrough happened.
Young dominated the competition in 2019, running at a level that put him among the best this area has ever seen. At the prestigious Arcadia Invitational, he won the invitational 3,200 in a time of eight minutes, 40 seconds, which put him eighth all-time nationally and third all-time in California.
He dominated the competition at the CIF-SS Track and Field Championships and the Masters Meet. He turned in another virtuoso performance at the CIF State meet in Fresno, winning in a time of 8:47.27.
His senior year got off to a roaring start in the fall as he set a national record for a 3-mile race, won the Nike Cross Nationals and was named the Gatorade Fall/Winter National Cross Country Runner of the Year.
In perhaps the greatest run in NXN history, Nico Young of Newbury Park (CA) crushes a loaded field at NXN with a course record of 14:52 in the rain. Went from the gun and never looked back. Won by 14 secs over 2nd-place Josh Methner. pic.twitter.com/267iJeferP
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) December 7, 2019
But just days before Young (6-foot, 135 pounds) was set to put his track season into high gear at the Arcadia Invitational, everything came to a stop in mid-March because of he COVID-19 pandemic.
Young will continue his running career at Northern Arizona, and he plans to focus on the 5,000 meters.
