Aaron Sahlman update?

he's redshirting his freshman year. it was announced last September.

He technically ran more races in Arizona in HS than he did in his first year in College

He's ineligible

He has been in base phase this whole year in preparation for pacing the HS national championship races in a few weeks. He is the greatest high school pacer in history and he is back better than ever. I can't wait to see what he is able to do after he peaks for his opening pacing.

funny sarcasm, but I bet he bursts onto the scene next year and runs quick in both the mile/1500m and the 800m. I'm not saying he'll match Colins times, but if Mike Smith has taught us anything in his tenure at NAU, it is to not doubt his plan of talented Newberry Park athletes.

FYI Aaron ran a 400m PR indoors this year, and I'm guessing that was off a lot of the threshold and volume work they do up there in Flagstaff...

Funniest sh!t I've read all week 😂

Him winning NXN was maybe the worst thing that could have happened. Fueled his ego to Flatt's levels of thinking of breaking national records while you're not even the best kid of your class. Hopefully Smith / Colin get his ego in check, Aaron has some sick raw speed and winning NXN showed that strength, but I feel like Aaron will never leave the ego behind.

if he really had an ego there's zero chance he would have accepted redshirting his entire freshman year, especially when his competitors Birbaum and Burns are running at Oregon. he would have immediately transfered out.

shows humility and character to trust the process, plus in the long run it worked out for him. Birnbaum and Burns are now both injured and have nothing to show for their freshman year whereas Aaron is healthy, has a full year of altitude training with the best coach in the country, and has all his eligibility remaining. expect big things from him next year.

he also has an NIL deal with a sunglasses company so he's generating income. not bad for a kid who didn't run at all this year.

I never saw crazy ego from him during high school. Also he broke the NXN course record. You can start thinking about national records at that point. It just never quite came together for him.

He set his goal of breaking the 800 record the summer before his senior year. He also ran 1:48 as a junior. He also ran 8:01i as a 16 year old. He'd have had a good shot at 1:46 if he hadn't gotten injured. Last I heard he was academically ineligible, but if he gets his academics together, I'm expecting great things from him. He said he was going to NAU because he was all in on running. Colin and Nico both went for the same reason, and things gave gone great for them.

do you have proof he's academically ineligible aside from this message board? Aaron is in every practice video. if he was academically ineligible he wouldn't be allowed to train with the team. Abdihamad Nur talks about his problems with his grades and how he wasn't allowed to train with the team until he became eligible.

No hate against Aaron Sahlman he is one of the most talented high school runners in history but I think it's pretty obvious that he doesn't pan out not due to injury but simply a lack of motivation and discipline. Anyone who knows him personally knows that while a decent kid he lacks seriousness. Although probably not on his level of talent, many talented athletes enter the college scene and completely collapse discipline wise due to most of the time just not having parents there to keep them in line. Obviously it's too early to decide that this is his fate but if he does not race much or show any signs of life in terms of running improving/getting near his PR I think it's safe to say the scenario is very possible.

I’m not disputing the personality traits (since I do not know him) but how does redshirting a freshman year indicate he has a lack of discipline?

Most people here don't believe the he intentionally redshirted this entire year, but rather a lack of discipline forced him to.

Hard thing to prove or disprove.

Still doing better that the young twins.

Do you understand what a red shirt season is?

Aaron was academically ineligible. You’re only allowed to go to every practice and you can’t compete for the team when academically ineligible. This is 100% true. Going to practice is always allowed

Don't know why the dude thought he had 1:46 potential, just because of that one race where he ran 1:48.9 in 2022 where he paced with his brother the entire time. He never PR'd in that event again after that

The dude's 400M PR isn't even under 50

Pursuing the 800 was just a waste of time. He should've focused more on events like the mile, 5K, etc.