My daughter ran the 1600 just over 5:00 her sophomore year. 3200 just under 11:00. Her early XC times her junior year were well under 18. With these in hand I knew from reading here and elsewhere that most college coaches would be interested in returning her e-mails and with receiving a call from her to get to know her better. I have also looked at the high school times of the fastest distance runners the coaches have recruited over the last several years. This told me the times my daughter needed to be able to run to get recruited from various competitive levels of programs. You daughter can start contacting coaches via e-mail after September 1st. It would help to have some fast XC times. 19 and under would be fine to get interest in XC this early in the season. Much higher would be non-scholarship times at the more competitive D1 schools. Have your daughter think about what and where she would fit academically and then checkout the colleges that have the academics she wants and the athletics that are a good fit. She should contact more schools throughout the fall as she has time. She may want to reach out to 20 or more. Not all may be interested. She may want to consider some DII schools. GVSU and others have competitive teams. If her times keep improving in high school then she may be able to contribute on a more competitive team--say one that regularly makes it to the NCAA XC Championship. But if her times only improve a little she may be much happier somewhere else where she is more likely to be able to contribute to the team and not somewhere where she never runs at meets. A lot of woman leave their college teams after their freshmen year. I have seen no times for them on tfrrs.org their first year or two and then they leave the team. I think many would have been happier picking a less competitive team where they had a much better chance of contributing within a year or two at most. Your daughter would be a better off on teams where she can run times by her senior year of high school that are being run at the colleges conference championships. College coaches expect that scholarship athletes will be able to score points for the team at conference champions so the closer her times are to those who score points the better. The sooner they think they can do this during their college career the more interested they will be in recruiting her.
If your daughter wants to run in college she should be running year round with a week or two off between seasons. I would recommend she run at NXN and/or Foot Locker Regional this fall. She should think about running at New Balance Nationals Indoors and New Balance Nationals Outdoor. She should look for other indoor racing options prior to New Balance Nationals Indoors. She may not do great her first time at any of these but she will be more prepared when she competes her senior year.
Make sure that she does not overtrain which increases the risk of injury. An easy day of running needs to follow a hard day so her body can recover for the next hard workout. Some run too fast on easy days which prevents the the body from repairing the wear done on hard days.
Make sure she eats healthy items and get something like the following each day:
3000 calories
80-some grams Fat
110 or so grams protein
340-some grams carb
She should take multivitamins and will likely need to take in extra iron.
Go on unofficial college visits this coming spring and summer. If planning a driving trip across the country, try to stop along the way at some colleges. Call well in advice to see if the coach is available. Schools in the states around New Balance Nationals may be a little more selective regarding visits immediately before or after New Balance Nationals because they receive many requests for visits by those competing.
If she wants to contribute to the most competitive D1 teams she should set a goal of running times similar to those of the top 30 or so high school girls in the nation. Look at prior years' ranking lists at Dyestat or Milesplit. Milesplit just came out with their top pre-season Flo50 list. Dyestat's pre-season list should be out any day. Tullyrunner's list came out several weeks ago. If her times are much slower by the end of her junior year then she should be looking at other teams where she can contribute. My guess is that the fastest distance recruit or two may be able to contribute to the team within a few years while the others may have to put in a lot of work for 3 or 4 years before they have a hope of contributing by their last year or two of eligibility.