Aaron Sahlman's Final Four Is Here

When it comes to high school distance running, Aaron Sahlman is among the absolute best.

The Newbury Park (CA) star is viewed as one of the most dynamic prep-level distance talents in the nation, boasting times of 1:48 for 800 meters, 4:01 in the mile, 8:01 for 3000 meters, 8:48 for 3200 meters, 13:42 for three miles during cross country and 14:14 for 5000 meters, also during cross country.

Last fall, Sahlman finished runner-up at the often-loaded Woodbridge XC Classic, placed 4th at the 2021 California State XC Championships and settled for a 6th place finish at the Garmin RunningLane XC National Championships.

Back in late September, our TSR #4 ranked recruit announced via Instagram who his final four schools are for his eventual college commitment. A handful of his listed options were far from surprising.

Others, however, caught us off guard.

Below, we broke down each of Sahlman's final four schools and analyzed his potential fit within each program. Let's begin...

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Northern Arizona Lumberjacks

Seeing Aaron Sahlman highlight Northern Arizona as one of his final four schools is probably the least surprising thing that we have seen so far in this recruiting cycle.

From day one, everyone and their mother believed that the Lumberjacks would be a potential landing spot for this dynamic Newbury Park prospect.

That's because NAU has close ties to the powerhouse high school program from just outside of Los Angeles. The Lumberjacks recently recruited Aaron Sahlman's former high school teammate, Nico Young, a couple years back and, more importantly, just brought in Aaron's brother, Colin Sahlman, during last year's recruiting class.

The familiarity and the ties that Aaron Sahlman has with Northern Arizona make them an obvious candidate to land this superstar prospect. And frankly, even if they didn't have former Newbury Park teammates already on their roster, NAU would likely still be one of Aaron's top options.

The Lumberjacks are fairly close to Newbury Park. They are a modern-day NCAA juggernaut and they often land a few of the most talented distance running recruit classes in the nation each and every year.

However, maybe more importantly, Northern Arizona just missed out on potentially landing Lex Young and Leo Young, Aaron's current teammates at Newbury Park.

Public opinion was that the Lumberjacks were heavy favorites to score commitments from the Young brothers. But that historically elite duo opted to commit to Stanford and now the NAU men are left with one or two roster spots that many believed would be filled by now.

One has to imagine that after missing on Lex and Leo Young, the Lumberjacks will be fighting hard to garner a commitment from Aaron Sahlman. He may not be the same all-time megastar that Lex and Leo are, but he's still one of the best high schoolers to ever grace a track. And in terms of personal bests, he's really not far that far off from either of his teammates.

Aaron Sahlman could commit to NAU and go on to have a phenomenal college career. No one would be surprised if that happened and truthfully, it's almost expected from him at this point.

However, compared to a few of the other schools in his final four...are we absolutely sure that Northern Arizona is the perfect fit for the younger Sahlman brother?

To be clear, this is not me suggesting that Aaron and NAU wouldn't be a good pairing. Aaron has had far too much success in the longer distances to not be an eventual impact name for the Lumberjacks during cross country.

But Sahlman has also run 1:48 (800) and 4:01 (mile), middle distance marks that stray a bit from the long distance identity that NAU has crafted throughout their program's history. And while the Lumberjacks have often had significant success in the 1500 meter and mile distances, the 800 meters hasn't exactly been their forte.

For perspective, no one on NAU's roster ran under 1:50 for the half-mile distance last spring, although there are a couple of men who have dipped into the 1:49 range in the past.

Could the Lumberjacks properly utilize and leverage Aaron Sahlman's middle distance speed if he ultimately committed to NAU? Does it really even matter if the men from Flagstaff have a somewhat limited history in the middle distance events? Are we confident that the 800 meters and the mile are events that the younger Sahlman brother would even focus on at the NCAA level anyway?

At the end of the day, it might not matter if every tiny aspect of Sahlman's resume doesn't perfectly align with Northern Arizona's roster structure.

Both parties thrive in the longer distances, both parties are plenty familiar with each other and NAU would be thrilled to have someone of Sahlman's talent who can a) effectively balance both cross country and the middle distances, and b) fill one or two roster spots that I'm sure the Lumberjacks wanted to reserve for the Young brothers.

In our eyes, NAU is probably the favorite to land Aaron Sahlman.

UCLA Bruins

If Northern Arizona wasn't the most predictable school in Aaron Sahlman's top-four, then UCLA most certainly was. On paper, almost everything about the Bruins make them an obvious candidate for our TSR #4 recruit.

UCLA is less than an hour from Newbury Park (well, depending on traffic), it's a prestigious academic school and it has the name-brand recognition, as well as the necessary resources, to be a suitable home for a top-tier athlete like Aaron Sahlman.

However, maybe more importantly, UCLA is also where Sean Brosnan, the former coach at Newbury Park, currently resides. Brosnan coached Sahlman and his Panther teammates over the last three years, but opted to join the Bruins as the team's distance coach this past summer.

On paper, the move made plenty of sense for Brosnan.

He was arguably the most accomplished high school distance coach in the country, UCLA was close to home, his stock as a coach had never been higher and the potential for Brosnan to land one of his former megastar athletes from Newbury Park would theoretically get him off to an incredible start.

But seeing Aaron Sahlman commit to UCLA instead of Northern Arizona would put him in a very different position than if he were to choose the latter.

The Bruins have a handful of respectable distance talents currently on their roster. Peter Herold has proven to be fairly competitive and the team just had success with now-departed veteran, Munir Kabbara.

However, many of the top names on this UCLA roster are getting older. Certain guys are running out of eligibility and the overall depth of this group is far more limited in comparison to a few other current PAC-12 and future BIG 10 rivals.

And with a new distance coach now at the helm, it feels like the Bruins are closer to a rebuild than anything else.

But that's what makes Aaron Sahlman's potential introduction to this team so unbelievably important. By adding this high school superstar to their roster, the UCLA men could have a long-term talent capable of making an immediate impact across all three seasons.

Not only that, but Sahlman committing to UCLA could spark additional interest from other elite-caliber high school names, both this year and in the future. In fact, Coach Sean Brosnan has already added sub-four miler Brenden Hebert, a transfer from Texas, to his roster for the upcoming winter and spring months.

If Sahlman were to commit to UCLA, then he could give the Bruins a legitimate identity and be the face of the program for the next four to five years. Of course, just like any other high school star, he would have to earn that respect, but he's certainly talented enough to do so.

Arkansas Razorbacks

I'll admit, I was a little surprised to see Arkansas as one of Aaron Sahlman's final four options.

Fayetteville isn't necessarily close in proximity to Newbury Park and the Razorbacks have a tendency to recruit overseas athletes (who oftentimes come through the transfer portal).

And when the Arkansas men do recruit high schoolers within the United States, they don't usually recruit from much further west than Texas.

Of course, that's not to say that Arkansas doesn't recruit from the west coast, but it's abundantly clear that many of their American recruits come from the south or the southwest portions of the United States.

But make no mistake, just because Arkansas wasn't one of the schools that I expected to see in Sahlman's final four doesn't mean that they're not a great fit. In fact, I would argue that the Razorbacks would actually suit Aaron Sahlman's skillset the best out of these four schools.

Historically, Arkansas is one of the best distance running programs in the NCAA. While they are slightly struggling this year, they have often found themselves in the hunt for the podium and their string of national titles a couple of decades ago gives them some of the best historical dominance of any program in the country.

And just look at some of the individual superstars who they have been able to bring in and develop! Recent names such as Amon Kemboi, Patrick Kiprop, Emmanuel Cheboson and Gilbert Boit are standout talents who headlined the NCAA over the last few seasons.

But the history of national-caliber success within this program goes far beyond those men and what we've seen from them over the last couple of seasons. The past decade alone has produced numerous nationally elite stars for Arkansas.

However, maybe the most important aspect of this Razorback team is that they are potentially the most well-rounded distance program in the country.

Not only have they thrived on the grass, but they have also developed a handful of the best middle distance runners in the NCAA.

Last year, between indoor and outdoor track, the Razorbacks had five men run under 1:50 for 800 meters, including two men (Kieran Taylor and Leroy Russell III) who went under 1:48.

And at the 1500 meter and mile distances, we've seen plenty of Arkansas standouts produce competitive marks as well. Last winter, three Razorbacks ran 4:00 or faster while Amon Kemboi went on to run 3:39 for 1500 meters during the spring.

From the 800 meters all the way up to cross country, few programs in the NCAA have been able to produce the same nationally competitive results in each of those events that Arkansas has shown on an annual basis.

On paper, the Razorbacks perfectly mirror the ultra-versatile skillset that Aaron Sahlman has been able to flex throughout his high school career.

The Arkansas men are also in a minor rebuild, recently losing a plethora of veteran stars. And while they will eventually rebound, likely through overseas additions and the transfer portal, scoring a recruit like Aaron Sahlman would be monumental for their rebound efforts.

Many of the Razorbacks' best scoring options in recent years have effectively been two or three-year rentals via the transfer portal, but adding this Newbury Park star to their current roster would give the men from Fayetteville a long-term, high-impact distance star to rally around for the next four to five years.

Oklahoma Sooners

Let's not beat around the bush: The Oklahoma Sooners were probably one of the last programs that I would have expected to make Aaron Sahlman's final four.

In fact, out of all of the Power Five programs in the NCAA with a men's cross country and track team, the Sooners likely would have been in my bottom-10 of schools that I thought Sahlman would consider.

And yet, here we are.

Admittedly, the last seven-ish years have not exactly been great for the Oklahoma men...at all. The Sooners have finished second-to-last at the BIG 12 XC Championships in their last three efforts and second-to-last in four out of the last five years.

However, there is at least some recent history of success within this program. Back in 2015, the Sooners finished runner-up at the BIG 12 XC Championships and qualified for the NCAA XC Championships that year where they placed 15th overall.

But since then, and until recently, there has been a limited investment and a limited amount of emphasis on Oklahoma's distance program.

The unexpected departure of coach Jason Dunn in 2016 to the University of Virginia was followed by Oklahoma women's standout, Haley Herberg, transferring to Washington a few years later and the Sooner men not being able to rally as a competitive distance team since.

That said, we've seen some small glimpses of promise from this program as of late.

Hannah Fields was recently added to this roster as the team's newest distance coach. Her experience as a professional runner for Brooks, as well as being a 19-time NAIA national champion, brings plenty of legitimacy and experience to this roster.

Not only that, but the Oklahoma men beat Texas Tech earlier this season. That may not seem like a big deal, but when you consider that the Sooners have only been able to beat TCU at their conference meet over the last three years, it's certainly a step in the right direction.

It also doesn't hurt that middle distance standout, Anass Mghari, ran 1:48 for 800 meters this past spring. That's certainly a promising development for someone like Aaron Sahlman to see, especially since he is plenty accomplished in the half-mile distance in his own right.

From an outsider's perspective, it is massively encouraging to see the Sooners among Sahlman's final four options. The fact that Oklahoma is in the same conversation as Northern Arizona, UCLA and Arkansas suggests that they are willing to make a legitimate investment in the distance events...well, at least for one guy.

If Sahlman wants to go against the grain and become the face of a potential rebuild, then Oklahoma could very easily be the best spot for him. And if he does do that, then it would be a thrilling rejection of the traditional powerhouses who seem destined to land him.