NEWBURY PARK, Calif. (July 2, 2020) – Just months after being named the Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year, Nico Young added another honor to his already impressive list on Thursday. Young, an incoming Northern Arizona distance runner, was announced as the 2019-20 Gatorade National Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
Young is the just the second student-athlete ever to win two Gatorade National Player of the Year awards in the same year in the program's 35-year history. Young is now a finalist for the Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year award, the most prestigious honor in high school sports, which will be announced later this month.
The prep star out of Newbury Park High School in Newbury Park, Calif. joins an impressive group of former Gatorade National Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year winners who have combined for 22 gold medals and 12 National Championships.
A national advisory panel comprised of sport-specific experts and sports journalists helped select Young from more than 600,000 boys track and field student-athletes nationwide. The award recognizes outstanding athletic excellence and high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field.
The announcement comes on the heels of Young's performance last week, in Portland, Ore. where he set a new California high school record of 13:50.55 in the 5000m. Part of a five-runner field at Portland's Franklin High School, Young shattered the 34-year old California state record by 11 seconds and now ranks fourth all-time among high school runners.
In his only race of the 2020 indoor season, Young set a new national high school record in the 3000m at the 113th NYRR Millrose Games in New York back in February. His time of 7:56.97 was just six-tenths of a second off the American U20 indoor 3K record.
Young won the Nike Cross Nationals in December during his record-breaking, and unbeaten, cross country season last fall.
He maintains a weighted 4.68 grade point average in the classroom and has volunteered for the past three summers as part of the Team Leadership program at Camp Many Mansions, a seven-week residential enrichment opportunity for youth from under-resourced communities.
Young is slated to join the Lumberjack cross country and track & field programs in the fall as the No. 1 cross country and long distance runner in the 2020 class.
