How is Cornell University as a distance running school?

Sage Canaday went there and turned out to improve and learn a lot.

Paging Rojo. Rojo, please report to the thread.

Distance running is important but so is 800 up for me, so I suppose that is really more middle distance as I would imagine I would focus in the 800-1500 area and hopefully get in some 5k's :D and xc of course.

As someone who recently took a visit there but did not ultimately end up going there I feel like I can give a little insight. Cornell is a great school. It is probably the best in the Ivy League in science and engineering. As a distance program I was really impressed. Although they do not get the studs out of high school like Princeton, Columbia, or Harvard, they are still able to compete and beat them sometimes. Coach Zeb knows what he is doing and is good a developing runners. Trails can't be beat, but winters can be rough. It was my favorite visit to an ivy league school.

cornell recruitsssssss wrote:

As someone who recently took a visit there but did not ultimately end up going there I feel like I can give a little insight. Cornell is a great school. It is probably the best in the Ivy League in science and engineering. As a distance program I was really impressed. Although they do not get the studs out of high school like Princeton, Columbia, or Harvard, they are still able to compete and beat them sometimes. Coach Zeb knows what he is doing and is good a developing runners. Trails can't be beat, but winters can be rough. It was my favorite visit to an ivy league school.

Were you recruited by cornell? If yes, what times were you running?

I am used to the new york winters and I do honestly like the snow and the cold. Ithaca should be an awesome place to get some trail runs in considering where it is.

Yeah I was recruited, I ran 9:20 and 15:25 but was always a much better xc guy and placed pretty well at big meets. Ithaca had trails everywhere. It honestly made the runs feel like adventures and I would definitely recommend that you get in contact with Zeb. He is a very personable guy.

I'm more of a middle distance guy so I'm guessing an equivalent mile is about 4:20 or so. But thanks for the information I have ran 4:27 as a sophmore in speing track and 1:58 for the 800 so i figured with progression cornell woulf be a doable goal with athletics

Not trying to be a d*ck, but you're asking this question on a little thing called the "Internet." The Internet has a wealth of information, including, but not limited to, the team website (with results), meet websites (with results) and websites that keep track of athletes' performances (again, with results).

They have a 3 hour marathoner as coach, that's why.

I have a runner currently being recruited by Cornell a few who have graduated.

I can speak very highly of the University.

Ithaca is also a great place to run. Ithaca college is a good D3 program and the local high school is always good.

A local club has some decent runners.

You will be close to Rochester and Syracuse, as well as Binghamton.

They host Indoor meets most weekends but also send runners all over the country.

I have dealt with the coaching staff- they are all fist class.

gottagofastgottagofaster wrote:

I know Cornell is a great school for computer science and I know it is division 1, but I am wondering how good is the distance program over at Cornell?

Chances are you're not good enough that this question even matters...If you're a 16:3X or slower 5k runner, you don't need to attend a special college. You're never going to be great enough that your college training will be THAT important.

I run faster than that and I am more of a middle distance runner so...

The previous Cornell cross country coach said that it is easy to get a team to qualify for xc nationals, i.e. given a decent coach and a decent recruiting situation any team should be a lock to qualify. Given that during his tenure, Cornell never qualified for nationals, I would think that his own assessment would be that Cornell has a fairly awful distance program.

Much improved in the last few years due to a coaching change.

markschultz25 wrote:

gottagofastgottagofaster wrote:

I know Cornell is a great school for computer science and I know it is division 1, but I am wondering how good is the distance program over at Cornell?

Chances are you're not good enough that this question even matters...If you're a 16:3X or slower 5k runner, you don't need to attend a special college. You're never going to be great enough that your college training will be THAT important.

He's a sophomore with a 4:27 PR... thats pretty impressive. No need to be a dick.

Phil Fondacaro wrote:

The previous Cornell cross country coach said that it is easy to get a team to qualify for xc nationals, i.e. given a decent coach and a decent recruiting situation any team should be a lock to qualify. Given that during his tenure, Cornell never qualified for nationals, I would think that his own assessment would be that Cornell has a fairly awful distance program.

Given that the previous coach is no longer there, I'd say this doesn't have much to do with the OP's question: "How is Cornell University as a distance running school?"

FWIW over the previous couple years Zeb, the current coach, seemed to have more success with mid-distance than distance, but that changed when his xc team took an unexpected second in the conference meet this fall (the winners were a truly outstanding Princeton squad. I was really very impressed (and, like a lot of people, surprised) by Cornell's performance--it was about a year ahead of "schedule." Anyway, Zeb really seems to be building a top program there now.

Also, having run a few miles in Ithaca myself, I can second the remarks about the wealth of trails/routes available.

Alan Webb ran 4:06 as a sophomore. The top sophs routinely run under 4:15. Don't correct me when I'm wrong, when I'm wrong Blood, I'm right.

And one more thing, like the other Ivy Leagues academics are VERY IMPORTANT. Do yourself a favor and score well on the ACT or SAT and hopefully you have a good GPA. My impression was they rather recruit the 4:23 kid with a 34 on the ACT than a 4:15 kid with a 27 on the ACT.

FWIW over the previous couple years Zeb, the current coach, seemed to have more success with mid-distance than distance, but that changed when his xc team took an unexpected second in the conference meet this fall.

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How much success did they have in mid-distance? I haven't followed the league closely in recent years.