Percent of your High School's XC Top 7 who continued to run in college?

5 of 7. not all 4 lasted 4 years in college, but 3 did. most at d2 schools. we ran cause we loved it back then. loved to run; loved to compete. today, you would tell us we were losers, wasting our time.

23 years later wrote:

a little background wrote:

#1 - 4:07 miler - yes - div. 1.

#2 - 4:09 miler - yes - div. 1

#3 - 4:12 miler (jr) - 4:09 miler sr. - yes div. 1

#4 - 9:04 two miler - yes div. 1

#5 - 4:17 miler - Div. III

#6 - 9:20 two miler - walk-on Div. 1 - two years on div. 1 team

#7 - 9:50 two miler - NAIA

Yes, we won the state meet easily - twice.

WTF? is this naturally occuring talent or did your coach recruit? We used to gripe at some high school breaking the rules to grab all the track talent, promising scholarships, etc.

How many mpw did you guys run?

I'm interested because my hs district was completely lame -despite 9,000 boys in the district, none would have made your xc varsity. How does this happen?

sounds like the axemen of Eugene, Ore. circa late 70?

It was in the 70's....with a look at the all time list of US high school milers - put out in 04/05 - I think - and a little study - you could figure it out.

When I was in school? Yikes, none of the team, pretty much.

My senior year:

1 no, was supposed to run JC, but wimped out

2 no

3 DIII

4 no

5 me, DIII

6 no

7no

Of the teams I coach, nearly all. for instance, going back a few years so you get all kids old enough for college now:

fall of '07:

1. DI

2. DIII

3. DI

4. NAIA

5. still in school, but looking DIII

6. DIII track, not XC

7. no, but it was the only season he ever ran

8. senior now, not likely but he should

9. DIII

'05, for another group:

1. DII, transferred to DI, then DIII (none for athletic reasons)

2. DI

3.DI listed above

4.DI listed above

5. diii listed above

6. no

7. diii

'02

1. di

2. dI

3. Di

4. DIII

5. Di (listed in '05 too)

6. no

7. no

Most of our kids run in college (obviously) but it's a school where 95% + go to college in the first place. Very few of our kids run on scholarship, but I don't push that as a coach. Instead they run at the highest level school they can. I don't push DI schools, but many of our kids think that way to start.

By the way, it was a public high school - we did not recruit. One of the best academic schools in the state. The school was then 50% Jewish - likely 70% now. The school's athletic achievements are long in the past (except for tennis, swimming, etc), and our team was definitely a bit of fluke.

XC coach was an incredibly nice person and fine man - that frankly mattered more than anything. Maybe 50 miles a week? But the top runners all had 50 second ish 400 speed - so we did a lot of speed work.

By the way, it was a public high school - we did not recruit. One of the best academic schools in the state. The school was then 50% Jewish - likely 70% now. The school's athletic achievements are long in the past (except for tennis, swimming, etc), and our team was definitely a fluke.

XC coach was an incredibly nice person and fine man - that frankly mattered more than anything. Maybe 50 miles a week? But the top runners all had 50 second ish 400 speed - so we did a lot of speed work. Too much in fact...

1. Was premed and didn't run competively.

2. D1 - Marist ran 12 seasons. (14:47 5k)

3. me - D3 - Bowdoin, ran 11 seasons. (15:21 5k)

4. D3 - WPI - ran one season, discovered alcohol - never graduated. (9:59 high school, not sure about college)

5. D1 - UMass - Ran one/two partial seasons (2:01 800m)

6. D1 - BC - tried to run a bunch, but never got healthy. (10:00 2 mile in high school)

7. D1 - UConn - Broke school record at UConn in 1000m (2:24). Didn't have enough $$ to run in college - had terrible college counseling - ended up living 30 minutes from campus with no car and working at McDonald's like 25 hours a week.

So, 28% ran full college careers, 71% competed in college and 86% joined a team.

This is the list from my freshman year in HS.

#1 DII for four years

#2 DI for a year

#3 majored in beerology even though he was easily the most talented of the group

#4 nope

#5 DII for four years

#6 nope

#7 nope

#8 nope

#9 (me) DI for four years

We were 6th at the NY state meet for class AA my junior year.

#1- ran for a decent D1 program

#2- ran for a good D3 program

#3- stopped running

#4- nordic skiing at the D1 level, no running

#5- recreational running only

#6- ran for a club team at a school with a perennially national qualifying team

#7- stopped running

Sr Year:

#1/Sr - D1 (NCAA Qualifier Indoor Mile)

#2/Jr - D1 (IC4A Steeple Qualifier)

#3/Jr - D3 (All Region XC)

#4/Jr - No

#5/Sr - D3 (NCAA Qualifier Outdoor 1500)

#6/So - No

#7/Jr - No

--

2 team members outside of the top 7 ran d3

6 or 7 years ago my senior year:

#1 - D1 Ivy, was like runner up at Heps 5K

#2 - 4:22 HS mile, supposed to run at UConn but didnt

#3 - cut from D1 xc team, now races 35mins for 5miles

#4 - stopped running, took up crew at Dartmouth

#5 - stopped running

#6 - stopped running

#7 - stopped running

---------------------

#8 - stopped running

#9 - (myself) D3 walk-on 27:55 8K

this year the team much improved with more running in college

#1 - runs for Ivy

#2 - runs for Ivy

#3 - Trinity D3

#4 - runs for Ivy

#5 - ran for D3 for couple weeks then stopped

#6 - Boston Univ

#7 - D1 walk-on

#8 - D2

#1 - D1, injured a lot, transferred, injured some more, graduated but didn't finish running

#2 - ran xc for one year D3

#3 - ran D1, finished out

#4 - ran D3, finished out

#5 - ran D1, finished out

#6 - didn't run

#7 - didn't run

I think there was a peer pressure element to this, as our top 5 were all seniors and we talked about running in college all the time.

#1 - DII - Currently a 2:15 marathoner

#2 - Nope, could have but played DIII basketball and was all conference in college

#3 - DII

#4 - DII - Both #3 and #4 ran at times in college but did not use eligibility for various reasons

#5 - DII - 15:30 5k in college, currently assisting at a DI university

#6 - didn't run but completed a few marathons around 3 hours

#7 - didn't run

We took 12th at state, which was ok for us that year. The top 5 were all able to pursue running past high school in DII land (before every school decided to jump to DI) as we had a great time running together and loved the sport. Ahhhh, the glory days!

# 1 D1

# 2 D3

# 3 D3

4-7 not

So were those times -- 4:07 etc. -- what they ran in college? Because if those were high school times, I'd be seriously impressed and curious what school you went to...

Meanwhile, to participate in this exercise: I was on a Texas state high school championship x-country team and our top guy went to Oregon on a ride, I went to Stanford, and our third man went to the University of Texas at Austin. We all did fairly well. I don't think any of the rest of our teammates ran in college.

It's interesting that good college runners very seldom arrive from a program that doesn't bring other people along, too.

Does anyone know of a top h.s. runner who came from a h.s. program that was otherwise poor? I can think of a couple of people, but not many...

starmiler wrote:

Does anyone know of a top h.s. runner who came from a h.s. program that was otherwise poor? I can think of a couple of people, but not many...

Really? tons.

Matt Lane

Franklyn Sanchez just to start

I know most of you are talking about your top 7. The NCAA has put out actual statistics and they say approximately 5% of ALL seniors who competed went on to compete for a full season their freshman year in college.

The whole thread could be summed up by one number:

5%

First: In the early 70s, third place NYS large schools XC without our fifth man, only two ran D III. I was one. Made All-American D III XC.

In a flip of today's question:

I asked at a local club road race one day. with about 20 men and women present, ages from late 20s to 60s, who ran in HS or college? Only two had run then. All the rest came to running later in life.

#1 - D3

#2 - D3

#3 - D1 Ivy

#4 - D1 Ivy

#5 - no XC, maybe track at a D1

#6 - maybe running club?

#7 - no

top 7 avg was 16:08 for a fast 5k course