Top high school athletes who went to NCAA and then dropped out or stopped running. Where are they now?

Where did he end up? Went to Humboldt for a minute, then enlisted?

What ever happened to Irene Riggs?

Ashley Brasoven? Kathy Kroeger?

She had a very brief pro career as well. I remember she ran for Team USA at the North American Challenge (a 5k run in Riverside, CA in November 1997. US v Mexico v Canada). I believe she was sponsored by Nike.

Slagowski is a tragic one. His coach burned him out like crazy- workouts like 4x800 at 1:55-1:58. Cooked him so much that it was a miracle he even arrived on campus.

Ended up working retail I think. Hope he found peace.

Those are just the famous, high-profile cases. You can find examples all over D1 and even D2 and 3.

Not a "top" runner, but someone I used to work with got recruited by Stanford (and this would have been early 00's when Stanford women were winning everything), ran 1 year and quit the team because she had lots of other interests. She wasn't interested in the level of commitment and focus a team like Stanford demanded.

On the flip side, my friend's kid ran at Yale and never made varsity but loved being part of the team. For him, running was his outlet from a pretty intense comp sci major.

Has no one mentioned arguably the greatest hs runner ever?? LV

Alan Webb became a college coach.

Shocked nobody else has mentioned LV yet.

What about someone who should go but played another sport instead? Im hoping Cantwell from Missouri who is skipping this senior season this year to enroll early at Georgia??? finds his way to the shot ring again at some point.

Didn't a top runner help found AirBnB?

Here’s an article about Slagowsk at the end of his freshman year at Penn State:

flotrack.org

Michael Slagowski Has Left Penn State - FloTrack

Johanna Gretschel

Sub-four high school miler Michael Slagowski has left Penn State and does not have plans to transfer to another school at this time.

Open link

He didn’t have anything bad to say about his HS coach and was planning on returning home to be coached by him. Depending on the interval time, that workout shouldn’t have been that knarly for him and 8 minutes of running wouldn’t have been a career ender

Add John Carlotti, Bernards HS '83, Bernardsville NJ to that Oregon list. Trained under Mark Wetmore, who drove those kids hard. A lot (most?) of those Bernards athletes ran their best race in high school.

I believe you have misinterpreted the question

Lukas Verbizcas and German Fernandez come to mind. Laura Hollander on the women's side.

Kroeger ran her entire 4 years at Stanford, finishing All American many times. She was 21st and 24th in cross her soph/senior years, 3rd at NCAA's indoor 5k as a senior, and finished 5th and 7th in outdoor NCAA's 5k's her soph and junior years. She ran 15:33 (not the same as what 15:33 is now). Maybe not a world beater or queen of the NCAA, but certainly doesnt fit the description of "dropped out or stopped running"

Search irunfar.com for Brasovan and you find dozens and dozens of results from at least as far back as 2017 and still active within the past year. Here's a 2021 profile where we learn she's been into scuba diving for 20 years, was interested in oceanography for a long time but didn't end up making it her job, works in the environmental field. . . and races a lot of sub-ultra mountain races.

irunfar.com

From the Mountains to the Sea: A Profile of Ashley Brasovan

Alex Potter

We talk to competitive trail runner Ashley Brasovan about the sport, her environmental work, and her love for scuba diving.

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There are many of them and it has been discussed many times. Just start with most of the girls that won FL or NXN. Sarah Baxter, Brie Oakley, Claudia Lane Irene Riggs, etc.

Estevan De La Rosa was a part of the early 2010's Arcadia High School XC dynasty. Won CA state Xc, multiple top 3 finishes at NXN, USA team member. Never stepped foot on a college campus or ran after high school. Rocha from Arcadia also blew up at Colorado for "alleged" conduct issues.