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Earlier today, Lex Young and Leo Young, two high school distance running superstars from Newbury Park High School, announced via their YouTube channel that they will be running for the Stanford Cardinal next year.
In the video, the twins noted that they had narrowed their decision down to Stanford and the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.
Lex and Leo, who are the younger brothers of current NAU standout and former high school phenom Nico Young, boast other-worldly personal bests.
Lex has run 3:59 (1600), 4:01 (mile), 7:57 (3k), 8:35 (3200) and 13:43 (5k). On the grass, he was 3rd at the Garmin RunningLane XC National Championships last fall, finishing only behind his two teammates (Colin Sahlman and Leo Young).
Lex's indoor 3k personal best sits at US #2 All-Time while his outdoor 5k personal best also sits at US #2 All-Time. His 3200 meter PR, according to MileSplit, sits at US #3 All-Time.
Leo, meanwhile, has run 3:59 (1600), 4:00 (mile), 8:39 (3200) and 14:05 (5k XC). On the grass, Leo was runner-up to teammate Colin Sahlman at the 2021 Garmin RunningLane XC National Championships.
The college commitments of the twin brothers comes shortly after their high school coach, Sean Brosnan, announced that he would be leaving Newbury Park High School to become the distance coach at UCLA.
With UCLA roughly a one hour drive from Newbury Park, and Brosnan now conveniently joining the collegiate ranks at the same time as Lex and Leo, there was heavy speculation that the twin superstars would be joining the Bruins.
However, if UCLA wasn't the pick, then Northern Arizona surely was (and vice versa).
Or so we thought.
The Lumberjacks have always been on the radar as a realistic landing spot for both Lex and Leo. Northern Arizona is currently home to their brother, Nico Young, as well as rising freshman Colin Sahlman, their former high school teammate.
Stanford, while certainly an outside contender, wasn't amongst the two favorites to land these all-time megastars. But now, the Cardinal may have secured two of the most stunning distance commitments in recent memory, catching most fans without any insider knowledge off guard.
All attention will soon shift to the future of the Stanford men, a roster that is currently constructed to contend for a national title in 2023 with the addition of Lex and Leo. At the moment, the Cardinal have the best top-three cross country runners in the NCAA, headlined by Cole Sprout, Charles Hicks and Ky Robinson.
All three of those men are expected to return in the fall of 2023.
With tons of established depth and two of the greatest high school distance runners in US history, the Stanford men could be clear favorites to win a national team title in cross country this time next year.