What a Night for NAU’s Nico Young at The Ten: Olympic Standard, NCAA Record; Dark Sky’s Kelati Also Gets Standard

So much for the fretting that Nico Young would implode, that the double NCAA Indoors titles he pulled off last weekend would take too much out of his legs, that this college boy with the new-found kick would meet his match against some of the country’s best pro distance runners.

Fret not.

Saturday night in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., at The Ten, Young once more proved all skeptics wrong. The NAU sensation closed strongly, just as he did in Boston last weekend, to finish second to superstar Grant Fisher by less than a second and, more important, secure the Olympic standard in the 10,000 meters with nearly seven seconds to spare.

His 26:52.72 not only sets Young up to gain an Olympic berth should he finish in the top three in June’s U.S. trials. It also was an NCAA record in the 10K, eclipsing the mark of 27:08.39 by Sam Chelanga in 2010.

It was a swift race, by any measure. No fewer than eight runners achieved the Olympic standard of 27 minutes, including Hoka NAZ Elite’s Adriaan Wildschutt (26:55.54), Woody Kincaid Mike Smith-trained at 26:57.57 and Under Armour Dark Sky’s Edwin Kurgat at 26:57.66.

Four women, including Dark Sky’s Weini Kelati ran under 30:40 earlier in the night to achieve the Olympic Standard. Kelati executed her race perfectly, staying just ahead of the pace lights the entire way, though wisely avoiding the blistering early pace set by eventual winner Tsigie Gebreselama and Alicia Monson. Kelati finished second to Gebreselama in 30:33.82. Hoka’s Rachel Smith, returning to the track and running a rare 10K finished fifth in 31:04.02, not the standard but a personal best. Elly Henes, like Smith coached by Mike Smith, finished eighth in 31:07.23.

But the night – and most of the attention — on a cool, windless evening at the J Serra High track belonged to NAU’s Young, who has spent the past few months not just meeting high expectations but exceeding them.

Even afterward, swarmed by friends and family, Young barely seemed spent. He said he and Smith only decided to enter the race on Tuesday, after returning from Boston and completing a monster workout at Buffalo Park.

“It’s really special to do it here (in California),” Young said. “We had a snowstorm in Flagstaff the other day, so it’s so nice to be here with family and friends watching. We stayed by the beach, so that was nice.”

Young has earned some downtime. You won’t be seeing him race much until late May and June, in his final NCAA campaign.  

“Tonight gives me a lot of confidence,” he said. “The collegiate season is ruthless. I’m going to take some rest and make sure I’m ready for June (the NCAA regionals and nationals.) Maybe some 1,500 but not a whole lot.”

Young said he hopes to run both the 10,000 and the 5,000 at the trials.

“They are seven days apart, so I think I can do that. But I think in the 10K my chances will be better.”

Kelati said afterward that she felt confident she would get the standard, which eluded her last year.

“I knew I was fit, and I thought, well, I can go with the first group or hang back a little. I really didn’t even decide until we lined up and took off. Then, I thought, ‘No, I need to stay with the second group. It felt pretty easy, but then I saw the pacemaker lights and I thought, I’m not going to let that light go. If I saw the light come behind me, I’d just have to run for my life. I mean, It’s just a six-mile race. I can do it, because I’ve done the half marathon.”

Kelati said after her participation at the end of the month in the World Cross Country Championships, she plans to run some 5Ks on the track. “Just to get the speed in, and also double in case.”

Other Flagstaff-based runners in the men’s 10K Saturday night included Abdi Nur (14^th in 27:17.28), Luis Grijalva (16^th in 27:26.02) – both significantly faster than they ran in this race last year – NAZ Elite’s Alex Masai (24^th 27:47.86) and NAZ Elite’s Wesley Kiptoo (28:03.42).

Besides Kelati, Smith and Henes, other Flagstaff finishers included NAZ Elite’s Mercy Chelangat (9^th in 31:15.39), Sara Hall (14^th in 31:32.52) and Dani Polerecky (22^nd in 32:49.90).  

Earlier in the night, McKirdy-trained runner Sammy McClintock, in a long-awaited return to the track after injury, finished sixth in the 1,500 meters in 4:16.22, despite getting tangled with two runners on the final backstretch.