US HS studs doing notning in ncaa cross

Salazar ran against Rono who was the best in the world,,didnt cry. Entitlement is a disease smdh

Such an American thing to do; to blame the foreigners when its own people under perform.

yeah and there are 2 primary (and very uncorrelated) components or buckets - that drive a high school kid’s “current potential” - 1) natural ability (or genetics), and 2) coaching/training. Multiple 100 mile summer weeks for a 17 year old fall in the second bucket - and front loads the realization of the kid’s natural ability (first bucket) into the kid’s hs career..

A few of the normal things that most of the responses have already pointed out: 1) Many of them are immediately redshirted and don't race until they are sophomores, in large part because, 2) It's challenging to transition from HS to college. From a training perspective, you are immediately stuck into a brand new system in which you are no longer the main focus, are coming off the end of the track season, and are having to learn the ropes of how training and racing work at the NCAA level. At the same time, you're also dealing with social and academic changes—your first fall is normally tumultuous and stressful across every dimension, which tends to place a cap on what you can accomplish. It's no wonder most don't make it when compared to more capable options on a team.

More broadly though, I do think some of this is the result of an over-emphasis on HS times and performances. Prep competition may be getting faster and faster and the record books have been shattered basically every year over the past decade, but that is in large part because HS training is getting more and more elite. In plenty of cases (and as has been discussed on LetsRun plenty of times), graduates from many of the best programs tend to be closer to their limit and can't make the necessary jump in performance. Because they have already been training like collegiate athletes, the benefit they get from the more periodized, advanced college system is gone. Only the actual prodigies remain, and even then, it often takes them some time to adjust given the factors outlined earlier. A lot of this problem is because we are time and performance obsessive now whereas most other countries explicitly focus on the racing components of XC first and foremost, which in turn puts the emphasis on personal development.

I'm not meaning to imply that this professionalized approach to HS level training is bad, but it often leads to results chasing that disregards the long-term future of the athlete for the immediate now. The NCAA system further enflames this model because it directly encourages young athletes to prioritize results now for recruitment purposes, which in turn devalues what comes after signing day. There's never really a prioritization of developmental paths for athletes, which in turn leads to many falling through the cracks as they get injured or find other interests.

Tayvon Kitchen would like a word.

last comment :)

and 25 years ago there were many more successful top NCAA runners who started high school playing soccer or another sport, switched over to cross country sophomore or junior year, had immediate success and wound up D1 recruits. That never ever happens anymore - every top runner has been doing it since junior high. all of these commitment posts on instagram have 2nd pic as the kid in a road race or track event at a very young age, and most of these kids were just participating in running by junior high. Long gone are the days of the soccer kid switching over and making an immediate impact in cross country (ala Grant Fisher). Those are the kids who would be the studs imo

Hernandez of Oklahoma St. was 4th as a freshmen and then went downhill

Even more baffling post because one look at tfrrs lists would show Americans are running way faster than ever before in huge numbers.
It’s always been that the top 40 kids in the country think they should all be AA in college when the reality is that 200 collegians were top 40 when they were in HS plus internationals and late bloomers. So of course most of them will not be at the top of the ncaa.

Used to be a 4:10 kid could hope to break 4 and make ncaa finals in track. Now a 4:04 kid can hope to run 3:55 and make finals. Bottom line is, as much as HS is faster than it used to be, the same is just as true in college.

Super shoes don’t matter on an XC course

That was Isai Rodriguez. As a senior coming back from a devastating car crash, he was a member of OK State's 2022 team that lost to NAU on a tiebreaker. He was one of two Americans, with Alex Meier, I think, who were the first two OSU runners that year. Fouad Messaoudi was among their top five. Losing to NAU yet again led Dave Smith to go to all-African, all-tested top recruits and it paid off with a sub-50 champion in 2023 with Musau, Kipngetich, Messaoudi, Sh!tsama, and maybe Meier or a foreign runner, a surprisingly low 8th in 2024, and another rout in 2025 with that nucleus of Musau, Messaoudi, and Kipngetich, with an American coming in to grab the fifth spot when their Kenyan miler faded.

You are wrong, the high school coaches are burning them out.

The scholarship excuse is BS. If you don't run 8:35 in the 3200, your 8:45 will still get you a massive scholarship just about everywhere you want to go. They should not be hitting 100 miles per week to run 8:35 in high school.

Most of these kids are from extremely wealthy families anyway. They don't even need scholarships, they just want a big offer to make them feel special. For their ego.

Ok, now tell us where Rylee Blade was?

.....

So true 👍. It reminds me when I ran track my coach and teammates would tell me my time trials in 600m, 400m, 300m indicated I could run 1:42 to 1:44 but that extra 200m was devastating...it takes time for MOST athletes to build their aerobic engine for new distances. A few top young athletes can do it in a year, most takes 2 years or longer.

This is a really good point. Kids that specialize in 1 sport at a young age always peak really early except an extremely small number of supertalents.

That's the entire premise of David Epstein's book "Range"

en.wikipedia.org

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World is a 2019 book by David Epstein, in which he expands on the points from his previous book The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance to make...

Open link

Just stop calling them generational talents and substitute 'very good high school runner'. It's guys like you who who hype them up' in the first place.

Last generational hs runner was Webb, recently we have had some good runners, but no one who really separated from other runners of their generation.

I guess Cooper Lutkenhaus doesn't exist

I was going to count Cooper, but the board generally doesn't count 800 runners among distance greats.

Brazier, Favor, Gallagher, Wottle rarely mentioned.

I'd also like to see Cooper thru his age 20 season.

Obviously, Hobbs Kessler also a hs great, but he has not really had that magical breakthrough yet as a pro.

This is 100% accurate. Until recently, the vast majority of sub 4 high school milers were MASSIVE busts in college. You can even argue Webb was let down - he didn't achieve anything of note on an international level.

Have you considered that the kids themselves may be burning themselves out and peaking in their desire to be competitive in HS? Think about it, it is never more fun to compete and your focus will never be less distracted than in HS. You will have the biggest crowds with the most fans and get the most recognition in HS. Not only do less kids run in college but their focus turns more to school and what they need to be successful in their future lives. It isn't a huge sport on many campuses and no regular, on campus competitions to bring in fans. It's more of a labor of love for the individual and a sense of belonging with your teammates. There is just much less sense of glory at that level unless you are Olympic trial level