College recruiting

Depends on who you target and location to those schools. Where do you live? Many smaller DI's might have limited interest if that 1610 placed well at State. Out of the fall season in high school my PR's were 16:28 in XC, but only 4:54 in the mile (only ran two years in high school). I got walk on offers to a few small DI schools, a few DII offers, and a bunch of NAIA offers. Took a walk on spot and improved to 4:33 the next spring.

Just my experience (17 years ago).

You have to take care of your health, because this is the most valuable thing you can have. I advise you to read the essay https://oceanessay.com/ and you will sing that sport is important, but you need to be careful.

You need to wait until you run significantly faster or you will be shut down forever. Many coaches will block any future contact if you go them with a 4:40. You need to hit 4:25 this year to even be taken seriously by a D1 school.

NCAA rules require colleges to be restricted to only letters or emails during the sophomore and Jr. years. I'm not sure of when, but soon, during the Senior year, a phone call can be made, and even campus visits. However, there is nothing preventing the student athlete from contacting the college track program at any time.

The coach may very well be restricted in what they can say. So, try to be aware of this when talking to anyone from the program.

Wait or be blacklisted wrote:

You need to wait until you run significantly faster or you will be shut down forever. Many coaches will block any future contact if you go them with a 4:40. You need to hit 4:25 this year to even be taken seriously by a D1 school.

That's a load of crap. Go ahead and contact the coaches. Would be great to have a faster time but if you run faster this year then you can go back to them again. They will absolutely not blacklist you.

I would absolutely block all future emails from a kid who contacts me with a 4:40 mile. Take the advice to wait until you are the realm of what the guys on the team are running. Most coaches love to coach and hate to be bothered with kids wasting their time. The other incorrect information above pertains to contact. The rules changed this year. Juniors can now take official visits.

If that 16:10 is on a real course and you have some relatively good finishes from any invitational or championship meets go ahead and try contacting some coaches. 4:40 1600m to 16:10 5k in one season is a big improvement which many programs like to see. Be prepared for most to ignore you (and don't take it personal), the nicer ones will at least email you back with what the walk-on standards are. Our program gets double-digit emails every day, mostly from kids that have way less of a chance than yourself. So do understand the volume of messages they are dealing with and don't get discouraged if you don't get much interest initially. Nobody is going to blacklist you, if you get substantially faster just email the same coach again.

We just set our systems across the NCAA to block all future emails from him. Don't contact coaches yet. You are nowhere near the required standard for Power 5 teams which is 4:18 or even low level mid majors which is 4:28.

RunninginSilence wrote:

I’m a junior and this cross country season I have run 16:10 for 5k but my PR in the 1600m from last year is 4:40 witch is not on pace with my 5k do I have to wait until track to try and gain some interest from low tier D1 schools

Thanks

I was in a similar boat as you. Going into spring my junior year, I had PRs of 16:40 xc 5k, 9:47 3200, 4:40 1600, and a 2:04 800. I was not getting a lot of d1 offers but I had a few low tier d1 offers. a solid 3200m time (9:45 range) could help you. I ended up getting my times down that spring and started to gain a lot more attention. I have had teammates and fellow competitors who ran low 9:40s and low 4:30s get recruited by small d1 schools. Also your still a junior you have a lot of developing to do. you just have to be patient as well and buy into the system

Which D1 schools recruit kids with those times? Help the rest of us out by informing us so we know which schools to contact.

D1 Scrubs wrote:

Which D1 schools recruit kids with those times? Help the rest of us out by informing us so we know which schools to contact.

The really crappy ones where you'll have an awful experience. Especially the "XC Only" ones.

Notice how nobody will ever divulge names or school names when they are questioned? Maybe there are some of those fake D1 schools that offer no scholarships and accept guys with those times but maybe not.

tristate wrote:

NCAA rules require colleges to be restricted to only letters or emails during the sophomore and Jr. years. I'm not sure of when, but soon, during the Senior year, a phone call can be made, and even campus visits. However, there is nothing preventing the student athlete from contacting the college track program at any time.

The coach may very well be restricted in what they can say. So, try to be aware of this when talking to anyone from the program.

This is incorrect. DI coaches may have open contact with Juniors, after Sept 1st.

DI coaches may NOT initiate contact with athletes prior to Sept 1st, may only send a generic "I can't talk to you" response to electronic communication.

You may call them but they can not return a phone call to you.

If you want to run D1 you need a faster time than 4:40. It is okay to contact coaches and all, if you tell them your goals, but you need to get down to at least a 4:23 and 15:40 if you want some coaches to talk to you seriously. I wish you the best of luck in getting there, but just wait to contact coaches until you are.

RunninginSilence wrote:

I’m a junior and this cross country season I have run 16:10 for 5k but my PR in the 1600m from last year is 4:40 witch is not on pace with my 5k do I have to wait until track to try and gain some interest from low tier D1 schools

Thanks

Consider some D3 schools while you're at it! Some private schools offer a lot of merit based aid if you're bright (or even if you're not). With your times you'd be a decent prospect for some higher tier D3's in terms of running. If you find a good program you can develop into a good runner and then look to transfer to a D1 school if you still desire that experience.

Yes he should be looking at D3 but not the top schools. Even they will have 5 guys running 25 flat after running 4:25 or 9:25 in HS.

D1 Scrubs wrote:

Which D1 schools recruit kids with those times? Help the rest of us out by informing us so we know which schools to contact.

I don't know of any D1 schools that actively recruit 4:30-4:40 milers. I have two guys on my team right now who ran exactly 4:30 in HS. One ran under 9:10 in the steeple last year and the other one has run under 14:30 for 5k but is less consistent in track than the steepler. The latter guy also only ran 10:22 (not a typo) in HS. The only reason they are on the team is because they tried out for the team with the possibility of not making the squad and resigning themselves to just being a normal student on campus if it didn't work out. They were under trained, tough, and showed a lot of upside the first couple of weeks of training into the team time trial so I put them on. Some programs would definitely be willing to give you a try out. Go for those programs. Any program who is willing to let a guy like that try out is also a program who doesn't mind developing someone. If they had reservations about developing you, they won't really be enthusiastic about you trying out in the first place. Best of luck.

Thanks and yes I ran the 16:10 on the Stanford Invitational course grabbing 8th place

Those times don't have a home on respectable distance programs.