*Newbury Park senior Nico Young went after the American Junior 3K record on Saturday at the Millrose Games in New York City.
Photo Credit: Steven Pisano/NY MileSplit
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Newbury Park senior Nico Young added to his already stellar senior season, setting a national high school indoor record for 3,000 meters Saturday at the Millrose Games.
Running on the banked oval at the Armory in New York City in a field of professionals, Young crossed in 7 minutes, 56.97 seconds to surpass Drew Hunter's previous national standard of 7:59.33 set in 2016.
Young went out in 2:39.20 for the first 1K, ran 2:38.69 and was at 5:17.89 after 2K, and closed in 2:39.20. His total just missed the American U20 indoor 3K record of 7:56.31 set in 2009 by Chris Derrick -- while he was with Stanford.
"Nico ran a perfect race," Newbury Park coach Sean Brosnan wrote in a text. "We were hoping the race would go out really fast and it did. I told him to be prepared to be in the back of the pack and got dragged to a high school national record."
Young, 17, who recently signed with Northern Arizona University, joined Hunter as the only high school athlete to ever go under 8 minutes indoors (only two athletes had done it across both seasons. German Fernandez (Riverbank/SJ) owns the outdoor 3K record in 7:59.83, accomplished at the 2008 Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, NC.)
Young, running unattached, was allowed to take the line with professionals and collegians, per National Federation of High School State Associations (NFHS) rules, based upon the fact that Millrose does not offer a high school race at the 3K distance.
Justyn Knight of Reebok Boston TC won the race in 7:46.36. Young was 11th and last among finishers in the field that began with 12.
In 2019, all but one runner in the 12-person field broke 8-minutes, with Stanford's Grant Fisher leaning past Wisconsin's Morgan McDonald at the line to win in 7:42.62.
Young had previously raced once since cross country, putting down a 1,500m performance (outdoors) of 3:52.39 at the Arcadia Winter Championships qualifier on Jan. 25.
And he's still relatively fresh since coming off a record performance at Nike Cross Nationals, where he broke the 5K meet record at Glendoveer and ran a winning time of 14:52.30.
He had previously run 8:13.31 for 3K, last February at the Rossi Relays in Claremont, CA.
This was the latest headline-making performance by the lanky senior, whose fall cross country season included a national record for 3 miles (13:39.70 at Woodbridge), a 30-second shattering of his 3-mile standard at the Riverside City Course (13:54.10) for a second consecutive Southern Section Division 2 title, two of the three fastest 5Ks ever at the Woodward Park course in Fresno, including to win a second consecutive CIF-Division II championship (14:28.50), and his record-setting run at Glendoveer.
Young's classmate, Jace Aschbrenner, a recent Colorado signee, ran in the New Balance Mile earlier Saturday, placing 10th in 4:18.85. Cian McPhillips from Longford, Ireland, won in 4:10.95. That time is a PR for Aschbrenner, improving his previous best of 4:20.73 accomplished last February at the UW High School Invitational in Seattle.
MORE ABOUT NICO YOUNG
- Record Pace: Two Athletes & The Pursuit of a National Title
- MileSplitCA Boys XC Runner of the Year
- Post-Woodbridge Interview with Nico
- Post-Woodbridge Interview with Coach Brosnan
- Post-Clovis Interview with Nico
- Post-State Interview with Nico
- Workout Wednesday With Newbury Park
- Pre-Season XC Interview with Nico
- U.S. 3-Mile Rankings For 2019
MileSplit's Cory Mull and Kyle Brazeil contributed to this report