College tennis player switches to track and runs 1:54 800 with 3 months of training

Steffi Graf was an Olympic 800M runner

Wiki
Her 1:56.64, set at the 2000 Olympics, is the current Austrian 800 meters

In 2010 her and 30 others banned for blood doping. She says she had blood removed but was not reentered.

Eric Hulst came out of tennis in high school. Had a friend talk him into cross country in order to "get in shape" for tennis...

A few months later he set the national 2 mile record for Freshmen.

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The "other" Stefanie Graf ran 2:03 800m at age 18 (a solo time trial, not an official race). It was faster than the U18 record in what was then West Germany.

Sarah Lancaster played 4 years of varsity tennis and one year of varsity basketball at University of Texas.

texaslonghorns.com

Sarah Lancaster - Women's Tennis - University of Texas Athletics

Sarah Lancaster - • 2010 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team (women[apos]s at-large division) • Three-time Academic All-Big 12 first-team selection ...

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sports-reference.com

Sarah Lancaster College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

@collegebb_ref

Sarah Lancaster - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

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She later became a 4:05/15:09 runner and qualified for the 2021 Olympic trial.

worldathletics.org

Sarah LANCASTER | Profile | World Athletics

Sarah LANCASTER, United States - 5000 Metres, 10,000 Metres, 3000 Metres, 3000 Metres Short Track, 1500 Metres Short Track, 1500 Metres

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Eh, I knew a 16 year old who went 156 high 3 months after switching from soccer to track, and a basketball player who did pretty much the same. Good athletes who are fit can do things like that.

Sean Wade was on a tennis scholarship at Rice and got interested in running while he was there. He ended up with a 2:10 marathon and ran the '96 Olympic Marathon for New Zealand.

a 1:53 800 gets you literally nothing in life ask me how I know

Thanks for your two cents.

We had a guy at my HS who was our starting QB in the fall, starting guard in the winter, and dropped a 4:10 1600 in the spring.

Michael Norman's HS coach can do ya one better: Coley Candaele was quarterback at Carpinteria HS an' 1989 CIF Player of the Year. Spring o' 1990 he goes toe to toe w/ future Footlocker champ Louie Quintana in the state 1600 and wins in 4:06. Bro ran the 800 at state too but that ain't go so well. That's a real hybrid athlete for ya folks! Champ as a quarterback and in the mile, he ain't need no stinkin' xc season!

Our starting PG (when he was a freshman) ended up quitting basketball after 9th grade to focus on track. He ran 9:02 3200m as a junior and eventually won the Philadelphia marathon.

I played tennis through high school. Went out for xc my senior year, halfway thru the season. That Saturday the coach had us do a 10 miler and he thought I might not finish. Honestly felt fine for 9 miles and legs got tired during the last mile but I easily finished with my group. Honestly, if you're playing tennis 3 hours a day while growing up, you're going to be in pretty good aerobic shape.

Hundreds of short sprints and jumping around in different directions ike tennis and other players do for over an hour during a match and daily in training can be good base for them talented 800m folks. If I remember correctly some like Agassi even did hill reps.Life sure aint fair but that's also a relief and my only excuse for never breaking 2:10 after decades of trying. Also, rèfs are blind and don't know what they're talking about .

I too was born Borg. He used to tell opponents that they should lower their shields and surrender their ships. Said he would add their biological and technological distinctiveness to his own. That their culture will adapt to service him and that resistance is futile. No wait, wrong alien. My bad. .

We had a girl in college (DIII) who was a tennis player, one summer she decided she wanted to start running and join the cross country team, she had never run before, she was the number 1 or 2 runner on the team straight from the start of the season after a single summer of running. She'd sometimes even do distance runs during the season with us guys because she thought the girls ran too slowly. If I remember correctly I believe she made nationals in xc that first season.

I had a teammate who finished 2nd place on the team in the opening 2 mile time trial of the cross country team first workout of the season. He was just a sophomore and he never got any better even the next two years!

Central Ohio area?