The Collegiate Preeminence of Nico Young

I am going to do something that I have never done before.

Throughout Friday evening, as numerous jaw-dropping distance performances flashed upon my monitors, there was one effort by one individual that simply stood above the rest. And while I promise to break down and analyze all of the other major results at a later time, it feels only right to specifically address that lone other-worldly performance...and nothing else.

I am, of course, talking about Nico Young's 5000-meter time of 12:57.14 at Boston University.

It's an NCAA record.

It's an Olympic Games standard.

And it's the first time that a college student has ever run under 13 minutes for 5000 meters.

It's hard to find the words to properly describe the magnitude of this result.

It's one thing to break the NCAA record and it's another thing to crack the 13-minute barrier. But to ultimately destroy the NCAA record -- which was set less than two months ago -- and comfortably go under a historic milestone barrier, once reserved for select pro-caliber superstars, is an absolutely mind-blowing development.

Most of our consistent readers at The Stride Report know that I have offered criticism of Nico Young in the past, citing limited turnover in late-race scenarios on the national stage, something that I still stand by.

However, I have also consistently claimed that no other runner in the NCAA has more raw talent than he does -- and that raw talent was very much on display on Friday night.

I would love to sit here, pat my chest and tell you that I correctly predicted Nico Young to break the NCAA 5k record and go under 13 minutes (and I did). But frankly, many studious NCAA fans probably predicted a collegiate record as well. And even though I predicted Young to run 12:59, he still ran past that mark somewhat comfortably.

And isn't that absurd? The fact that we can predict a collegiate distance runner to go 12:59 for 5000 meters (on an indoor track, nonetheless) and that STILL be too slow of a prediction? If I had said that exact sentence five years ago -- heck, maybe even two years ago -- people would have thought I was insane.

But nowadays, it's our reality.

Make no mistake, competitive distance running at all levels and in all events is currently going through a renaissance of sorts. Records aren't just being broken -- they're being shattered. Depth on national leaderboards has grown extensively and the gap between the pros and the younger athletes is beginning to shrink ever-so-slightly.

Heck, NAU had two other men, Aaron Las Heras and Theo Quax, run 13:16 for 5000 meters (each) in the non-invite section and yet, no one is talking about them! Those are top-15 NCAA all-time indoor 5k marks! That's incredible!

And yet, despite the clear and obvious trend of distance running performances getting faster, it's Nico Young's latest effort that seemingly transcends that. Young didn't just break a record or hit a major milestone -- he completely altered our perception of what we once thought an American college student was capable of.

Per LetsRun's Jon Gault, Young is now the youngest American to ever run under 13 minutes for 5000 meters -- and it's not even close. At 21 years old (he'll be 22 in July), Young is well ahead of Grant Fisher who ran under 13 minutes a few months before he turned 25.

In some of Young's prior performances, I would sit down and dissect his moves and, like many others, try to figure out what that result means for the national meet.

But none of that matters. It just doesn't. Not right now, at least.

Sure, you can find me on the Blue Oval Podcast a month from now ultimately reverting back to my critique-heavy persona. But as my fellow co-host, Ben Weisel, so elegantly said on our latest episode...

"Gosh darn it, we don't need to talk about the postseason right now. If all we care about in these regular season races is how they're gonna reflect at Nationals, then we're going to miss the whole joy of running."

And yes, he actually said, "gosh darn it."

Growing up, one of the more iconic races that I replayed every so often was Alan Webb running 3:53 in the mile to set a new high school national record at the Prefontaine Classic. And as I tap away at my keyboard, I can't help but wonder, will Nico Young's 5k performance ultimately hold similar lore?

Truthfully, that question requires years-long maturation before we can give a proper answer. But Webb's historic high school mile effort and Young's milestone 5k performance are moments that feel equally as heavy.

Sure, other Americans had run as fast (or faster) than those two men in their respective events, but none of them were as young as Alan was or as Nico is. Both of those distance stars ran their historic marks in pro-laden time trial-esque environments.

And when the dust settled, both Webb and Young ultimately reset what we believed younger Americans were capable of achieving.

Could that be because it's so fresh in our minds? Sure, that's very possible. Recency bias, after all, plays a big role in our sport. But I don't think anything that I'm saying here is a hyperbole. I truly don't.

I've covered the collegiate distance scene for nine years now. It will be a full decade in January of 2025. And during that time, I have been able to see a large handful of historically incredible performances.

That list includes Donavan Brazier breaking the collegiate 800-meter record en route to NCAA gold and Michael Saruni eventually breaking that record two years later.

It also includes the Oregon men flat-out dominating throughout the 2021 indoor track season before Alabama's Eliud Kipsang went under 3:34 for 1500 meters to set an NCAA record in the spring of 2022.

Lawi Lalang running the NCAA indoor 5k record of 13:08 at the 2012 Millrose Games was an absolute thrill -- I got to see it in person -- but that mark now sits at NCAA #4 all-time and is 11 seconds slower than what Young just produced.

And of course, a library of Edward Cheserek's races could be thrown into the mix.

There are plenty of other results that I'm not mentioning and/or that I haven't seen. And to be clear, that isn't meant to be a completely exhausted list, I'm just giving you examples. Even so, none of those collegiate-centric performances/moments seemingly held the allure that Northern Arizona's focal superstar held on Friday night when he crossed the finished line.

And when we talk about legacy, I think that matters.

The indoor track season moves fast and the headlines move faster. But none of that moves as fast as what Nico Young did on Friday night.

So before we, as a collective running community, move on to the next great performance and get caught in the circular debates of national title contention, I would implore you to take pause and appreciate the eminence of a moment like this.

Because if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.