9:20 3200m D1 Walk-on

Here are some PRs of guys that made Top 7 for their teams at Big 12, granted not a great conference, but still P5. Bottom line, if you TRULY want the D1 Experience, there are about 20-30 D1 schools that have this level of high school athlete that the school will talk to you and recruit you if you show interest. These are simple facts. Once again, these runners scored for their squad at P5 Conference Championship-

15:38/32:58 (4:20/9:35 in high school)

1:57 high school

4:18 (1:56/4:25/9:56 in high school)

4:32/10:10 in high school

4:26 (1:57/4:27 in high school)

4:51/9:54 in high school

1:59/4:38 in high school

Many of you can distract and deflect and say "well they are not fully funded" etc. and maybe they don't prioritize distance but you are still able to walk -on to a Division I program and compete against the best in the country and like many can use as a stepping stone to transfer to an even bigger D1 program if you feel so inclined like many have done.

If you need help targeting programs that would allow you to walk-on, and that is your non-negotiable, let me know.

999op wrote:

Could I walk onto CU boulder with a 9:20 next year? 50mpw off season, 35 in season. If not 9:20, where's the line? 9:10? Would appreciate your thoughts.

Is D1 even worth it for someone running low 9:20's who DOESN'T need scholarship cash? D3 better option?

As someone who ran both D3 and D2, looking back I would have focused on a couple things before making my decision.

-Which school will give me the opportunity to graduate with minimal/no debt

-What school will give me the best chance to succeed in my career following graduation

-What type of environment am I looking for

Your times put you in a very favorable position in that you'd be able to run on most teams in the country. You may not get scholarship or walk on to the top programs like CU but most colleges will happily take a guy running that fast.

If you can have the combination of the three and have a good coach that's perfect. But also keep in mind that coaches may not stick around during the entirety of your four years there. At my undergrad our coach was out my junior year and I found myself looking to possibly transfer because running was the only thing I enjoyed nonacademically. Thankfully I found other things about the campus that I loved. For graduate school the small town wasn't really where I saw myself being at long term but I enjoyed my grad program and had some of the coolest running experiences over my time there (traveling for races, gear, our team competing for national titles).

Best of luck!

999op wrote:

oops just posed non-anonymously! Oh well. that's my reply though wise old man

My daughter is a similar runner to you, or maybe just a little faster. As a junior she ran 5:08 and 11:10 and 18:3x 5K on a hard and well known course. She missed senior spring year because of Covid. She’s a very strong student. She was not good enough to be recruited by a high quality D1 school and those coaches were meh to outright no regarding walking on. She went to a great D3 school with a great coach and running program in the SCIAC and she’s loving it. Good luck to you. Post again regarding your times at the end of the upcoming season. Hope you kill it and can walk on wherever you want.

Wise Old Man wrote:

999op wrote:

oops just posed non-anonymously! Oh well. that's my reply though wise old man

My daughter is a similar runner to you, or maybe just a little faster. As a junior she ran 5:08 and 11:10 and 18:3x 5K on a hard and well known course. She missed senior spring year because of Covid. She’s a very strong student. She was not good enough to be recruited by a high quality D1 school and those coaches were meh to outright no regarding walking on. She went to a great D3 school with a great coach and running program in the SCIAC and she’s loving it. Good luck to you. Post again regarding your times at the end of the upcoming season. Hope you kill it and can walk on wherever you want.

SCIAC alum here. Absolutely loved my experience there. Now the entire conference is travelling out of state for XC which is a big plus compare to when we only traveled for maybe regionals. Having Mt Sac and Oxy track meets in your back yard is amazing.

A kid from our high school ran 9:30 junior year and received no real interest. He enrolled at the local P5 state school because it was the economical choice. The team finishes near the bottom in the conference but when he contacted the coach about a roster spot, the coach required a sub 9:20. He was enrolled and attending the school regardless of if on the team or not. He ran 9:18 senior year and the coach gave him a spot. All of these people thinking that walk-on comes easy are entirely incorrect. This kid was attending the school already and required no effort on the part of the coach.

999op wrote:

Could I walk onto CU boulder with a 9:20 next year? 50mpw off season, 35 in season. If not 9:20, where's the line? 9:10? Would appreciate your thoughts.

Is D1 even worth it for someone running low 9:20's who DOESN'T need scholarship cash? D3 better option?

I've asked this question before of OPs with similar stories and it's why you chose to run those levels of mpw. Do you believe that they are the point of diminishing returns for you? You can easily add 20-30mpw with with morning runs if you want to do so. Running sub-9:10 is a better story for a college coach than selling yourself as being undertrained.

999op wrote:

Could I walk onto CU boulder with a 9:20 next year? 50mpw off season, 35 in season. If not 9:20, where's the line? 9:10? Would appreciate your thoughts.

Is D1 even worth it for someone running low 9:20's who DOESN'T need scholarship cash? D3 better option?

The best advice I got from my high school coach is go to a program that WANTS you (and I was fast). I picked one of the top running schools in the nation at the time (where I wasn't recruited), got chewed up spit out because the coach wasn't great, and then I transferred to a school where I could immediately contribute with a good coach. The coach really matters. Go where the coach is interested and where you can get an education that won't put you into too much debt. College tuition and fees are way too inflated nowadays relative to the education they provide.

Definitely run in college, even if you have to spend a year adjusting to 70-80 mpw before you can contribute. But prioritize your education, not your running. The odds of you running super competitively in ten years are not high. This is true of all would-be college runners.

100% true

There are stories of winning the coach over with your hidden talent and work ethic, but they are rare. I was a D1 walk on at an elite place. The coach grudgingly let me try but never really wanted me. Ultimately I quit because it’s hard to stay motivated without the interest and regard of your coach even if you are getting prs and improving. I regret my choice as it pertains to running and wish I’d followed the advice of others and run a level down. I’m sure I’d have run the same times or better and felt better about myself in the process. Go where you are wanted from Day 1, and even then it can be a grind.

Weren't the guys chewing you up and spitting you out, trained by the same coach? What could he have done that would have resulted in you being able to keep up with runners with superior talent?

Only thing I'm not liking in tone from OP perhaps is not understanding how much growth you'll get in college if undertrained in high school. I went from 9:35 for 3200m in high school to 8:48 for 3000m as a FR; 8:40 as a SO; 8:22 as a JR; 8:16 as a SR... and that was a crap event for me going 13:54 indoors. What you run in high school is not your ceiling. Give yourself 2+ years in college to really see what you can do. I went from 20 miles/week in high school to 40 miles FR; 60 miles SO; 90 miles JR, 110 miles SR as peaks.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Weren't the guys chewing you up and spitting you out, trained by the same coach? What could he have done that would have resulted in you being able to keep up with runners with superior talent?

Taking a freshman who ran 50 miles per week in high school, making him run 100 right away with guys that are 3-4 years older than him is going to wreck that athlete.

But that athlete, if the coach is patient and builds volume slowly, can be a beast after a couple years. Power 5 coaches would just severely overtrain the athlete for a .00000001% chance he can run 13:30 as a freshman.

fact checker 230987 wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Weren't the guys chewing you up and spitting you out, trained by the same coach? What could he have done that would have resulted in you being able to keep up with runners with superior talent?

Taking a freshman who ran 50 miles per week in high school, making him run 100 right away with guys that are 3-4 years older than him is going to wreck that athlete.

But that athlete, if the coach is patient and builds volume slowly, can be a beast after a couple years. Power 5 coaches would just severely overtrain the athlete for a .00000001% chance he can run 13:30 as a freshman.

If that freshman only runs singles, he won't be running 100mpw. He can gradually add morning runs to increase his mpw at a rate of his choosing.

rojo wrote:

My understanding is if with that type of time if you try to walk on Wetmore will say to you, run 70-80 mpw for a year and get back gto me. I think it's good advice.

Colorado has an annual 5 mile time trial so students can try to walk on the cross country team.

Seth DeMoor had a 10:03 PR (at altitude) when he graduated from high school. I believe he received the Wetmore talk rojo refers to above, did as instructed, and walked on his sophmore year.

With that being said, I think Seth was going to Colorado regardless of running, so I think good advice would be to pick a college based on "fit"/academics if you are not being recruited.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

fact checker 230987 wrote:

Taking a freshman who ran 50 miles per week in high school, making him run 100 right away with guys that are 3-4 years older than him is going to wreck that athlete.

But that athlete, if the coach is patient and builds volume slowly, can be a beast after a couple years. Power 5 coaches would just severely overtrain the athlete for a .00000001% chance he can run 13:30 as a freshman.

If that freshman only runs singles, he won't be running 100mpw. He can gradually add morning runs to increase his mpw at a rate of his choosing.

Did you even run in college? Do you think Wetmore lets his freshmen run whatever mileage they want? The coaches push really hard training on them when they aren't ready. Several posters in this thread have already posted that about their own experiences.

Was the 9:20 in CO? If so, you're definitely CU material. If it was at sealevel, if you haven't improved since that 9:20, you'll have a tough time. It would be good to know your other times (XC in particular).

That said, I don't see why CU wouldn't take a flier on you. They have signed a lot of meh dudes in the last few years. They never recruit all that well, but it's been worse, in my view, in the last 5-10 years. Although they still get the occasional blue chip recruit. But since the class of 2020, here are their dudes & 3200 that they actually signed (so people that had a guaranteed spot on the team and didn't have to do the TT):

A. Baca: 9:08 (15:09A XC 5k)

I. Givens: 8:53 (15:15 @ Woodward / 15:00 @ Desert Twilight XC)

C. Williams: 9:17 (15:38 @ Desert Twilight XC)

W. Georges: 9:08 (14:36 3-mile, 15:46 5k)

R. Kilbarger-Stumpff: 9:14 (14:42 @ Garmin)

C. Wingenfeld: 9:08 (15:13 XC)

Z. Gacnik: 9:35A (15:33 XC)

L. Haug: 9:17 (14:44 XC)

J. Medina: 9:28A (15:17 XC)

J. Overberg: 8:59 (15:18 XC)

G. Rauba: 9:01 (14:53 XC)

C. Welch: 9:32A (15:32A)

B. Greene: 9:41 (15:43)

C. Robertson: 9:10 (14:48)

C. Niednagel: 9:01 (15:07)

J. Derouin: 9:14 (15:40)

S. Powell 9:21 (15:12)

I don't see why OP couldn't get a lot of interest from CU given who they have brought in recently -- a bet plenty of those guys run more than 40MPW in HS.

There is always a story. Gacnik ran 15:30 XC as a junior and then Covid canceled XC. Of course a coach will allow him to walk-on at that point thinking he would have gone sub 9:20 as a junior.

Covid cancelled track.

what team is this?

What hint do you want? I narrowed it down to about a dozen teams already with clues.