Official 2025 NCAA Cross Country live discussion thread (+live reaction show at 1 pm ET)

HereYouGo wrote:

Thanks for sharing the research you’ve done to support your statement. I understand your point: Alabama typically isn’t recruiting the same profile of athletes as programs that regularly land full-ride, top-tier American prospects like Angelina, Grace, Jane, or Lexy. When the majority of the roster is made up of walk-ons or athletes on very small scholarships from domestically, it’s unrealistic to expect All-American-level results across the board.
That doesn’t mean those athletes don’t bring value, though. Many of them develop significantly once they’re in the program, and some can absolutely exceed expectations even without arriving as blue-chip recruits.
In other words, the issue isn’t effort or ability—it’s the recruiting profile. Expecting All-American output from athletes who weren’t recruited as All-American-level prospects sets everyone up for frustration. Recognizing where the program realistically sits in the recruiting landscape helps create more reasonable expectations and allows the athletes who are there to be appreciated for what they actually contribute. Here is the research done for you. Current girls from this past seasons track tfrrs list and their HS milesplit numbers I could find. I just went off of the list and I also excluded graduated girls. I didn’t want to take more time than I already did responding to this post.

Keaton Morrison (senior) High School - 2:09.32/4:49 College - 2:04.35/4:16.23(1500)

Lilly Walters (junior) High School - 4:59/10:33 College - 4:25.50/9:19.52(3k)/10:06 Steeple

Leah Kleekamp (senior) High School - 5:13/11:31 College - 4:32.45/9:46(3k)/16:55(5k)/20:58 (6k this year)

Taylor McCue (junior) High School - 5:01/11:03 College - 4:31

Meriel Rowland (sophomore) High School - 5:06/10:57 . College - 20:53 (6k this year)

This also does not include Dorenkamp who was there last year and improved a lot her first year with Stenuf. Hopefully we see something from her soon at Colorado, I really enjoyed watching her in high school. She ran 9:13 indoors at Alabama (9:21 outdoor HS pb).