Wisconsin Recruiting Class: Best in the Country

Certainly that bodes well for their program and stability and good structure could produce excellent runners out of those recruits. However assuming we are talking about distance (and middle-distance) running programs calling that the "Best in the Country" at this point without further evidence is farfetched don't u think?

That is a LOADED class.

pretty strong class, no doubt, with guys like hardy (4:07), wilmot (nike xc champ), and Mcdonald (3:45), and no doubt Wisconsin will do something with these guys. Are they not in play with the best guys in the country?

One of their recruits (Jacob Hirsbrunner) has a 4:13 1600 to go with a 6-8.25" HJ... remarkable combo

What happened to Troy Smith? Haven't heard anything from since he started at Wisco - injured?

jjjjjjjjj wrote:

pretty strong class, no doubt, with guys like hardy (4:07), wilmot (nike xc champ), and Mcdonald (3:45), and no doubt Wisconsin will do something with these guys. Are they not in play with the best guys in the country?

Depends what you mean. If you mean this November at NCAA Champs, that is highly, highly unlikely. This is all future promise and hope. Nothing that compares right now to the core of 13:30's/13:40's guys and top NCAA returners that Colorado and Stanford can bring to the table.

jjjjjjjjj wrote:

pretty strong class, no doubt, with guys like hardy (4:07), wilmot (nike xc champ), and Mcdonald (3:45), and no doubt Wisconsin will do something with these guys. Are they not in play with the best guys in the country?

A lot of people don't think Hardy will improve much in college and Wilmot basically lost most of his senior year due to injury and still isn't 100% healthy. I am glad Mick finally got a strong class, but until these guys perform against Big Ten competition, I wouldn't judge their greatness or lack thereof much.

uphill run wrote:

jjjjjjjjj wrote:

pretty strong class, no doubt, with guys like hardy (4:07), wilmot (nike xc champ), and Mcdonald (3:45), and no doubt Wisconsin will do something with these guys. Are they not in play with the best guys in the country?

A lot of people don't think Hardy will improve much in college and Wilmot basically lost most of his senior year due to injury and still isn't 100% healthy. I am glad Mick finally got a strong class, but until these guys perform against Big Ten competition, I wouldn't judge their greatness or lack thereof much.

What do you know of Hardy? Probably absolutely nothing except for what is going around on the rumor mill.

I'll admit I know nothing about his training, but I am sure Wisconsin with it's history with developing great runners will turn him, Wilmot and the rest of the class into champs.

Yes these kids have great accomplishments and credentials for HIGH SCHOOL. Lets go through the recruits.

-Hardy is runs super high mileage (multiple sources) so he isn't going to improve much. literally no progression from sophomore to senior year of hs.

-Wilmont can't stay healthy to save his life. If he could stay healthy he could be an incredible runner, but he's so fragile. How on earth is he going to handle college training if he can't stay healthy for more than 6 weeks at the hs level.

-Hirshbrunner is very talented but needs to be developed especially aerobically. And high jump may be a distraction or end up being his main focus.

-Miehe will eventually be a solid pack runner in xc

-Freitag ran worse in both senior xc and track his senior year and didn't progress much from freshman to senior year

-Barth needs to be developed, and it remains to be seen if he can make any impact at the d1 level

Benning, McDermott and Dehaven are very intriguing prospects. Zander came on strong his senior track season, and the Aussie may make an immediate impact. And Thompson has no track prs listed so that's a question mark.

Honestly Mckenna Ramos (d3 champ from uw oshkosh) has by far the most potential at the college level. He dominated d3 track from start to finish as a frosh. More impressive is the fact that he was a 1:57, 4:17, 9:19 guy who improved to 1:50, 3:45 (4:02 1600), 8:2X (8:5X).

So overall, there is a lot of promise but two of the fastest recruits (hardy and Wilmont) look a lot better on paper.

Look for someone in the Benning, McDermott, Dehaven, Miehe group to turn into a stud, and Ramos and the Aussie to make a more immediate impact

Not as good as Furman's this year or last year.

And what has Furman done with those kids........nothing

Cal got a great recruiting class as well.

Look for Wisco to run in the top 3 in the next few years.

Look for Cal to maybe make NCAAs.

Here is simplified version of the class.

3:45, 8:15, 14:07

1:51, 3:47

4:07, 8:55

8:57, NXN Champ

9:00

9:02, 4:14

9:02

1:54, 4:11

1:53, 4:13

Obviously no one knows how each runner will turn out, but given Wisconsin's success in turning 9:00 guys into All Americans they should be potentially winning NCAAs in a few years.

Tedio wrote:

Zander came on strong his senior track season

I personally think Nick Zander has a lot of potential. His 4:11 was a good effort but as far as I know that was the first time he ever ran better than 4:19. Nick also has 1:52 speed and ran a 9:22 lapping the entire field in his only attempt mid-season.

Watch for him in the 1500 and indoor mile! He will have the right training and competition to put him in the 3:40s right away next spring. A 4:04-4:06 drop in the scrub indoor season isn't far fetched either.

troy smith sux ballz

oh my god he is terrible

on the ground wrote:

Tedio wrote:

Zander came on strong his senior track season

I personally think Nick Zander has a lot of potential. His 4:11 was a good effort but as far as I know that was the first time he ever ran better than 4:19. Nick also has 1:52 speed and ran a 9:22 lapping the entire field in his only attempt mid-season.

Watch for him in the 1500 and indoor mile! He will have the right training and competition to put him in the 3:40s right away next spring. A 4:04-4:06 drop in the scrub indoor season isn't far fetched either.

Not sure about 3:40s right away, as I think he's a strong candidate to be redshirted but definitely a promising prospect.

While some may think my post was harsh, let me say that I hope all of their recruits succeed, despite my skepticism about much of the recruiting class. But the hs to college transition is such a crapshoot. If the coaches actually knew how to recruit, Cam Levins, Michael VanVoorhis and Sam Penzenstadler (3rd at NCAA's in the 1500) all would have been heavily recruited. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have Russ Sandvold who was I believe was a 4:10, 9:00, 15:23 xc 5k, who was heavily recruited, is now running 15:15 in the 5k on the track

Zander was a sub 4:08 talent, but his hs coach wanted him to run a safe pace considering he also had the 800 and 4x8 to run.

Bump. Where are these guys?

Green Giants wrote:

Bump. Where are these guys?

Good find. Hindsight is 20/20.

Wow.