Isitforgu wrote:
dsadfccc wrote:Given how many kids are running 8:50 or faster these days? I don't think so...check out Oregon's top 7 HS PRs.
Oregon is ONE team. Check out the high school PRs of all of the top 25 teams. 9:00-9:10 coming out of highschool is FAR from "developing" and much closer to "buying" success. Sub 9:10/4:10 is going to be contending for a state 1st place in many if not most states.
HS running is just so much deeper now. In the 90s, only 7 runners went sub-9:00 in the 3200. In the decade following, it was more than 100. I had a teammate in HS who ran 9:18 and it was one of the top 20 to 30 times in the country. Now, it would be lucky to be in the top 250.
The "developing" in college is more refinement. 20 years ago, Wetmore was finding diamonds in the rough. The 9:10 guy would go to Stanford or Oregon; Wetmore would find the kid who ran 4:30/9:40 at altitude off of 35 mpw and play basketball in the winter and turn him into a sub-30:00 10k guy. Now, Wetmore gets the 9:10 kids and faster. But his team's are deeper than 20 years ago. And so is everyone else.