NEWBURY PARK, Calif. (February 20, 2020) – Incoming Northern Arizona Lumberjack Nico Young was named the 2019-20 Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year on Thursday in a surprise announcement in front of his teammates, coaches, friends and family at Newbury Park High School.
To view the video of the announcement, click
here.
The award, which recognizes outstanding athletic excellence and high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, recognizes Young as the best high school boys cross country runner in the country. A national advisory panel comprised of sport-specific experts and sports journalists selected Young from nearly 300,000 high school boys cross country runners across the nation.
Young, who will join the NAU men's cross country and track & field programs in the fall, is now a finalist for the Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year award, the most prestigious award in high school sports, which will be announced at a special ceremony prior to The ESPY Awards in July.
Young enjoyed a record-breaking, and unbeaten, cross country season this past fall capped off by a national championship at the Nike Cross Nationals with a course-record time of 14:52.3 while also leading his Newbury Park team to the national team title.
He also set a national prep three-mile record of 13:39.7 at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic in addition to the Clovis Invitational meet record (14:28.9) and Riverside Championship Course record (13:54.1). Young was not only a national champion, but also the CIF Southern Section and Division 2 CIF state champions.
Just two weekends ago, Young set a new national high school record in the 3000m (7:56.97) at the historic Millrose Games. He narrowly missed the American U20 indoor 3K record by six-tenths of a second.
Young, who also holds a 4.68 grade point average in the classroom, has volunteered locally over the last three summers as a camp assistant at Many Mansions for underprivileged youth.
Young is the second Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year who will don the NAU Blue & Gold joining Futsum Zeinasellassie, who also won the 2011 Nike Cross Nationals. Zeinasellassie, the 2011-12 recipient, went on to be the lead finisher on NAU's first NCAA Championship Cross Country Team in 2016 and became the Lumberjacks' first four-time cross country All-American.
