When the story is all told, Aaron Sahlman will be the one that is remembered from the 2019-2023 NP era. He is the Jakob of the group. Best raw speed of them all, which makes his ceiling the highest.Nico, Colin, Lex, and Leo...
Anyone that says they picked Aaron to win is flat out lying. Obviously a fantastic runner, but dude has never won an XC race in his life before NXN. He was consistently 15 seconds back from the Twins
To be fair, if anyone picked Aaron to win it would have been "A big dummy".
bumping because I just remembered Aaron Sahlman had never won an XC race until he won NXN. I can't think of a bigger upset tbh. He was injured early in the season, and wasn't really even close to the twins until state. The twins were coming off dominant 2nd and 3rd places from the last year, and were running super fast constantly. They even started their season late to focus on NXN and WJXC. They look great at the start of the race, then Lex falls, Aaron is still lurking, Leo gaps everyone, then hits the last hills and Aaron blows by him. Incredible.
bumping because I just remembered Aaron Sahlman had never won an XC race until he won NXN. I can't think of a bigger upset tbh. He was injured early in the season, and wasn't really even close to the twins until state. The twins were coming off dominant 2nd and 3rd places from the last year, and were running super fast constantly. They even started their season late to focus on NXN and WJXC. They look great at the start of the race, then Lex falls, Aaron is still lurking, Leo gaps everyone, then hits the last hills and Aaron blows by him. Incredible.
Sahlman is a great story, but it's tongue in cheek humor given how absurd Newbury P was. If you said that the guy who was 6th at the 2021 national meet returned to be the 2022 champ, it's not a farfetched proposition.
bumping because I just remembered Aaron Sahlman had never won an XC race until he won NXN. I can't think of a bigger upset tbh. He was injured early in the season, and wasn't really even close to the twins until state. The twins were coming off dominant 2nd and 3rd places from the last year, and were running super fast constantly. They even started their season late to focus on NXN and WJXC. They look great at the start of the race, then Lex falls, Aaron is still lurking, Leo gaps everyone, then hits the last hills and Aaron blows by him. Incredible.
Sahlman is a great story, but it's tongue in cheek humor given how absurd Newbury P was. If you said that the guy who was 6th at the 2021 national meet returned to be the 2022 champ, it's not a farfetched proposition.
Watch the replay of the broadcast. They must have mentioned 8 to 10 guys to watch. None of them were Aaron Sahlman.
But yes, he was being overlooked. He did run 14:41 at State (then again Noonan ran 14:35 this year).
Sahlman is a great story, but it's tongue in cheek humor given how absurd Newbury P was. If you said that the guy who was 6th at the 2021 national meet returned to be the 2022 champ, it's not a farfetched proposition.
Watch the replay of the broadcast. They must have mentioned 8 to 10 guys to watch. None of them were Aaron Sahlman.
But yes, he was being overlooked. He did run 14:41 at State (then again Noonan ran 14:35 this year).
However Brosnan never let Newbury Park go 100% at the California State Championships at Woodward Park. That’s why Newbury wasn’t like the train wreck of California schools at this years NXN