16 out of 17 Newbury Park boys went sub-4:50

Only two freshman on the distance team at a school with over 2000 kids seems suspect.

Here’s how many they had in the years since Nico Young was a freshman:

2017 - 5 (not including Nico as he was injured)

2018 - 8

2019 - 7

2020 - n/a

2021 - 5

2022 - 2

Hopefully 2022 will end up being an outlier in this regard.

I dont know if one year is indicative of too much. Same thing occured at my hs 3 years ago even without making anycuts/entry standards. Only 2 freshmen that year

Huh? How does the best team in history not have 100 freshmen breaking down the door to get on the team? Everyone wants attention.

I’d actually love to hear from one of the “normal” runners on NP about what it’s like training with such elite teammates. Do they get the same attention or is the main focus on the stars? How do you motivate yourself and stay focused on your own goals and improvement when training? What’s it like seeing all the attention? How does the team get along? How do they manage the dynamic between the stars and everyone else?

It takes some mental strength to be young, and to be surrounded by super talent and maintain your self esteem and sense of your own goals and love of running. It would be interesting to hear about.

Yeah but not everyone wants the hard work that accompanies that attention.

Actually, there were 5 freshman boys during the CC season.

1 of them (Stillman) did track but the longest distances that he did was the 200 m dash and 300 m hurdles.

The second highest CC freshman (Ingersoll) did other sports so he didn’t do track.

The other CC freshman (Rowell) ran only 2 CC races and did not run track.

There were 7 freshman girls that did the 1600 though.

Imagine running a 5:01 and being the slowest kid on the team.

Gotta remember most high schoolers never break 5!

Bro what??

This is clearly the best team that has ever run in HS, but that stat is really not that impressive. Mead High School probably had 100-150 boys turn out every year back when I was running in the mid to late 90s. I ran with them in the summers (another school) and I think they probably had 50 that were sub 5, probably 20 that were sub 4:30, 10 that were sub 4:20, 5 that could go sub 4:10 and 2-4 that were in the 4:00 to 4:05 range. Deepest program in the history of high school running. I won't believe otherwise.

Perhaps there is a Mead grad out here (or Pat Tyson himself?!) that could comment/confirm with some actual stats?

No girls? Their girls set the national record in the 4 x 1600m. Top girl ran a 4:37. The girls team is doing just fine.

And all 4 girls on that relay team have broken 5 minutes in the 1600.

ca.milesplit.com

California High School Girls Rankings | Outdoor Track And Field 20221600 Meter Run

Link:ca.milesplit.com/rankings/events/high-...

It’s the same story on the girl’s side. If you’re really good, you may hang on for 4 years, otherwise it’s a speedy exit from the team.

Sounds about right. only one non-freshman girl didn’t break 5:40. A 6:01 junior.

And look at the 1600 times from spring 2021. 3 guys (freshman) that didn’t break 5 mins. And only 1 girl (freshman) that didn’t break 5:51.

And in 2021 the slowest 1600 sophomore time for the boys was 4:43. Second slowest was 4:28 (this guy became NP’s 6th runner on the XC team!).

There were 16 boys in the class of 2023 in 2019.

All this reaffirms that anyone who wasn’t outstanding from that class decided to quit the team.

And in 2019, the slowest 2 sophomore 1600 times for the boys were 4:51 and 5:15. And only 2 people in that group have ever been in Newbury Park’s top 7. But this group does not include Christian Simone who transferred in his senior year.

ca.milesplit.com

California High School Boys Rankings | Outdoor Track And Field 20191600 Meter Run

Link:ca.milesplit.com/rankings/events/high-...