Athlete #1: 10th grader. Ran 19:00 in XC and 56.x and 2:14 (with splits of 61/73) indoors. First year of HS running.
Athlete #2: 11th grader. He ran 1:01/2:24/5:30 in middle school, now doing HJ (5’6”) and the 400m (55.0).
I think both ought to focus on the 800m as they could get close to 2:00 in the next year or so with proper training.
What do y’all think?
Runner 1: If he likes running the 800, go for it. He seems to have the speed for a decent time, and the capability for endurance training. The fact that he attempted XC shows that he's willing to put in miles. An 800m runner needs to be able to do that. His terribly paced 2:14 would optimize to about a 2:10. Please get him to understand pacing. There's no reason a reasonably intelligent runner should ever do that twice, so make sure that doesn't happen again.
Runner 2: The high jump performance isn't great, but not bad, so he certainly has some innate explosiveness. The 400m time is also good. I think he should stick to the 400m, but throw him into an 800 once and see how it goes. If he runs 2:10, then there's potential. But as I stated earlier, an 800m runner needs to put in miles since he's still a distance runner. The fact that this kid hasn't run distance ever and is now a junior shows that he will need time to make a good base.
Alabama runner eh? That’s where I am. These were two kids I coached in middle school. The second one was pretty good at the 800/1600 but once he got to HS the HS coach has him doing other stuff.