Best High School Runners Who Never Did a Thing in College or After

Obea Moore.

free beer wrote:

pre-German wrote:

Jeff Nelson of Burbank, CA

Nelson ran 13:44 as a college freshman. He transferred and I believe won a JUCO national cross championship.

I know Jeff on a very personal level, he just didn't enjoy running as much as you'd think. He wanted to move on with his life and start a family. I run with him on occasion, and I bet he could still hammer out some gnarly times though.

Ryan Sheridan

Kevin Tschirheart

David Welsh was another Jesuit product who had some good years at Arkansas in the early '90's; Was 2nd in the 5 km and 3rd in the 10 km at NCAA's and also was an XC AA with a top 10 finish I believe.

Burt Davis wrote:

Back in the 80's, Walt Lange produced some great runners. A few years later, he developed Stember, who I believe is the only Jesuit runner to do anything post high school.

87 was the Eric and Mark Mastalir. Each won their event at State Meet.I can't imagine they had anything left after hs, as thewer fully developed as freshmen. neither of them ran well at Stanford.

88 was Paul Thomas. He won the mile/2mile at the State Meet.......went to Arkansas and never ran fast again.

Pedro Reyes. Either 1st or 2nd at State meet in mile. Never did anything.

When you have high school power houses like, Jesuit, York, Mead etc, it makes you wonder what would happen if these kids stayed in the same routine/program, would they have been great?

Gonna have to go ahead and second Obea Moore on this one. I haven't read the whole thread, but I'd be surprised if he hasn't been brought up a dozen if not a few dozen times. It probably cannot be reiterated enough given the thread title.

Granville came to mind, too, but it wouldn't be accurate to say he did nothing in college. I remember running summer track and reading about all of Obea Moore's records. It seemed like he held every record from 200-800 in every age group. I'm not sure what's more impressive, the range or breaking 46 when you're 16. I had to check, but he still holds about a half dozen records. Seeing it on paper is one thing, but I actually got to see him run once. I'm in my early thirties now and it was nearly twenty years ago, but I still remember pretty vividly the utter domination. I'm as much a fan of football as track and I'm not sure I've seen anything like it in any sport at the youth level to date. It would be like someone scoring every single time they touched the football.

It was something to see, but now when I think of it, he was truly great for any age, but it is sad how early he peaked and how burnt out he was. Same applies to Granville. Even being that talented, they probably shouldn't have been running that fast at that age without sacrificing the future. Expectations got built up too much for a kid to handle, not just physically but mentally. I want my kids work hard and compete to an extent, but if you're good and have potential, it's not like it will be a big secret. Take your foot off the pedal a bit and save some for when it counts or when they're mature enough to handle the pressure. But he was something special even though he never did anything after high school and I'm glad I got to see it.

Accuracy was off a bit on Jesuit. Mastalirs graduated in 86 and I was 87. Also, I did not win both distance events at Cal State Meet. I was only 2nd in the 1600m. Great memories though.

PT

Sheridan was a stud his soph year of HS, but found a way to get healthy for a portion of his college career at Iona and came in 12th at XC nationals and ran under 29 in the 10k.

Tschirhart ran like 347 in the 1500. He improved, but not as much as he probably would have liked.

This guy never ran after this race. This pretty much should end the thread. 8:00 3000m and 3:45 1500. We was as good as Rupp/Ritz/Webb in high school and just disappeared after high school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_2V_ovqGYU

That was a great video. Someone has to have some information on this guy.

Anderson went to Dartmouth, of course. Lananna had recruited him. I saw him run on occasions. He went around 13:50, but that was about it. I had the impression that he wasn't all that "into" his running. But I didn't really know him, the Dartmouth guys from back then would probably know.

First names came to mind, Eric Reynolds, Tim Nelson and some other guy what was name...oh yea,, blast from the past, BEN FREAKIN TRUE!!! Baby!

Ruebin Reina? (Spell?) Still holds FLocker Balboa record I think.

What@!# wrote:

Ruebin Reina? (Spell?) Still holds FLocker Balboa record I think.

Reuben Reina

Awards: ‘92 USA Olympic Team - Barcelona Games 5000m; Eight-Time All-American in Track & Cross Country; Seven Time SWC (Southwest Conference) Champion; Two-Time NCAA National 3000m Indoor Champion - ‘90, ‘91; ‘91 USA World Championships Team - Tokyo 5000m; ‘92 Indoor Grand Prix Champion 3000m; ‘93 Olympic Festival Champion 5000m; ‘94 Indoor Grand Prix Champion 3000m; Four-Time Millrose Games 3000m Champ - ‘91, ‘92, ‘94, ‘95; ‘94 USA National Cross Country Champion; ‘95 USA National Cross Country Runner-up; ‘96 USA National Cross Country Champion; Arkansas Road 5K Record Holder 13:26 - July 5, 1992; Arkansas Road 10K Record Holder 28:57 - October 1990. Personal Bests: 800m - 1:52.1 - High School - April 1985; 1500m - 3:40.81 - Belfast, N. Ireland - July 16, 1990; 1 Mile - 3:57.08 - Fayetteville, Arkansas - January 25, 1991; 3000m - 7:43.02 - Nice, France - July 15, 1991; 5000m - 13:24.78 - Oslo, Norway - July 6, 1991; 10,000m - 28:31 - Mt. SAC Relays - April 1997.

In other words, successful after high school...

What@!# wrote:

Ruebin Reina? (Spell?) Still holds FLocker Balboa record I think.

God you are an idiot. Reina at Arkansas was one of the top runners in the NCAA, a 3:57 miler and NCAA 3000 champion.

Anyone say Victor Gras yet? 4:06 in HS, went to one of the best Mid D programs in history and still did nothing.

This thread is ridiculous. The title is runners who "never did a thing" in College or after, so if a runner has done something of note, then obviously you can't put them.

Honestly, how can you say Matt Withrow or Nicole Blood did nothing? Almost as ridiculous as saying Josh McDougal did nothing...

The other way to look at this is what if there were more powerhouse programs? What if ever school had coaches getting their kids out running 60+ mpw year round. Would we have a half dozen sub 4 min milers every year? We like to give the high school powers a hard time about burning out their talent. But to a large extent they don't have talent. They have the same kids everyone else does. They just get a heck of a lot more out of them. And then in college they have to compete with the talented kids that have just started to train properly. And surprise, the poorly trained kids improve more.

Burt Davis wrote:

When you have high school power houses like, Jesuit, York, Mead etc, it makes you wonder what would happen if these kids stayed in the same routine/program, would they have been great?

THE BITCH wrote:

newname wrote:

And York has put out dozens of sub-4:20/sub-9:20 runners, maybe they didn't all develop much after that, but to say that "everyone who has ever run for York"?

Learn something before you write that. I bet they have had 50 runners achieve more than you did in college.

Everyone likes to say that York runners do nothing in college but let's not forget that the "dozens and dozens" of York runners that have run sub-4:20 and sub-9:20 is a gross exaggeration. York wins because they have a slew of ~9:30 guys, which is all it takes to win in HS. 9:30 guys are rarely going to run fast in college. York has only had 9 guys run 9:10 or faster in HS and if I remember correctly one of them went on to win NCAAs and another went on to run 13:05.

It says (and I quote) ... "And York has put out dozens of sub-4:20/sub-9:20 runners" ...

It did not say "dozens and dozens", that would be your exaggeration. I can't find an all-time list for York for the 3200 or 1600, but I would bet a month's pay that York has indeed had "dozens of sub-4:20/sub-9:20 runners" (as the post says) in the last 50 years.

That would be just 24 (dozens) and they have 3 under 8:57, so I bet if you can produce their all-time list they have 21 others between 8:57 and 9:20 and I bet there are 2 dozen OTHERS under 4:20.

If it doesn't I will be the first to apologize and say that I am wrong and you are right THE BITCH.

She was from Waterford High School inWaterford CT. Fitch HS is in Groton CT about 25 minutes from Waterford. Liz won the 1991 Kinney Nationals as a junior inHS and elected to not return as a senior. Eventually went into kickboxing after couple non stellar years at a. Small college in CT. Became an excellent. Kick boxer with many awards.