If you were a 9:25 3200m guy, would you go D1 or D2/3?

I was a 9:20 3200m and a 4:18 1600m in high school. I went to NAU and dropped my time down to 8:12 3k and a 3:46 1500m the first year. Go D1 if you get the chance...you get pulled along if the team is willing.

You could become a difference maker on a good DIII team and have a blast. You would probably become a bitter, frustrated nobody at the D1 level.

go juco leagues all the way

I was a 9:20 high school guy, decided I wanted a shot. I went to 13:45 in college, all American, and eventually 28:00 10k. It wouldn't have worked had I not been in a major conference school.

Focus on the academics first and then on the coaching staff. Academics are not the same everywhere. Anyone who has experience hiring people will tell you this. The guy who has a 2.5 at Harvard is going to get the job over the guy who got a 3.5 at Random State University.

To all of the people saying "Go D3 and be an all-star!", that's a pathetic attitude. I was a multiple time All-American in D3 and I would gladly give those certificates up to be a "nobody" with a sub 14 5k PR. Don't a choice based on division, make it based on the coaching staff. I think that my coach's training program was lacking and his refusal to give me much of any input into my workouts definitely held me back. Make sure you mesh well with a coach's training program and personality before you make a choice. Ask other people about how they have progressed under that coach, check results and make sure they don't have a habit of peaking early, etc.

I have a hard time believing all these people who supposedly went from 9:50 2 miles down to 8:10 3k/28:00 10k. If you really made that kind of improvement in a few years, you must not have been at all serious in high school.

ExquisiteCorpse wrote:

The answer is that you need to choose an individual program, not a division. I ran DIII, coached both DIII and DI, and there are great options and terrible options in both.

I wouldn't rule out DIII because you think you're above it. You aren't, and it will be a better experience, competitively, unless you get insanely better (and even then...)

Go somewhere you like. Consider all options. Part of it is that if your life revolves around 2 practices per day, and you don't like structure and think running is the most important part of your life, you probably won't like a lot of serious DI programs. Conversely, if running is the most important thing in your life, there are a smaller number of DIII programs that will suit you (though they definitely exist).

This guy has it right. We had a guy come into our team when I was at a DIII college with 9:20, 4:25, sub 16 5k XC prs and was our 7th runnner as a Freshman for XC. There is plenty of talent in DIII if you look in the right places. Plus, you'll probably be able to find just as good, if not better academics. Look for a place you like, where you'll be happy running, living (for FOUR YEARS), and studying.

twitched wrote:

Academics everywhere are the same. When I said "choose your school based on what you want to study", part of what that means is that not every school has every major. Between ones that DO have the same major, it makes no difference where you go as far as learning the stuff goes.

The laws of physics are the same at every school that teaches physics. But not everyschool teaches physics.

The laws of biology aren't the same at every school that teaches biology. OP: Don't go to Liberty.

miles batty (ncaa record holder in case you forgot)

was a 9:23 guy in HS.

DREAM BIG!

The coaching angle as one gent said is right, if you want to run at your best, not with some meathead coach. The acedemics at D II and II are quite good and a lot of those guys do post-graduate work. I attended a NAIA school in the south and had a great college career, a better choice for me than going Div I. Choose wisely. Do your homework....

go to the university of portland.

Soon to be College Runner wrote:

Subject pretty much says it all. Likely going to be about 9:20 or a bit under by years end.

I would focus on the merits of each particular school, not the NCAA division that some of its sports teams happen to be in, and it is almost inconceivable that I would ever choose an academically undistinguished school over one with a stellar academic reputation.

Your post seems to suggest that you're already a senior. The deadlines for applying to virtually all of the most academically competitive schools have already passed. Have you applied to any of them? Which particular schools are still realistic possibilities for you?

Univ of PORTLAND

Consistently takes 9:20 guys makes them into top 5 guys on teams that are nationally compeitive year in and year out. best collar D1 XC team in the nation.

Wish I would have went there....

They call me skeeter wrote:

two words: Barton County Community College

two words huh...I see you found a fit with the community college route.

You should go to my school. We are the best at everything.

Don't forget to look at training facilities. How are you going to be treated in the event that you get hurt? Are you going to have the means necessary to make a speedy recovery and to identify weaknesses to avoid similar injuries in the future?

An education is as good as you make it anywhere. If you want to learn you'll find professors who want to teach.

Education is overrated. Get a studio apartment in Flagstaff and teach yourself all you need to know from the internet while you train.

there are very few sub 920 HS guys who don't go D1. VERY few. 920 will win the state meat in more than half the country...we become accustomed to treating it as average because we routinely see 8:50 guys in the headlines, and forget how tiny of a minority that is...there are a lot of D1 schools with a lot of open spots. if you're going break 920 you're going to get a good amount of scholarship offers (at least partial, probably a few full). not to mention how many 915-945 guys have gone on to be DI all-americans...that is a very, very long list...

as a 926 HS guy who made the choice myself (to go D1) a few years back, i can say with a humble amount of authority that everyone i closely competed against during HS, wound up going D1 in college, even if it wasn't the best choice, and even if they didn't improve/compete well over all 4 years.

personally, just my view of things, but i'd say the "line", or territory where you have to make the choice, is closer to the 9:55/435 range. maybe it's only me who has seen the enormous improvements guys make in college, but my small D1 school alone had a 432 HS guy who wound up going 4:02/1:51, plus two 9:50ish guys hovered around 30:30 for 10k and mid 14's for 5k, plus, most miraculously, a 4:44 hs miler who ran 8:46/14:50/31:07. i thrashed all 4 in high school and freshman/sophomore years, spent my last two years chasing them, for the most part, once they developed. our 9:19 kid we brought in when i was a senior ran 13:57 as a junior last year. everyone is different - but anyone who shows potential to run under 10 minutes, 435, 205 in HS, and displays the necessary fearless work ethic, could certainly go D1. it's not as elitist as it is made out to be.

the trouble is, you get guys who run 920 in high school and they want to feel like they belong to some sort of exclusive club, when the reality is that the race has just begun, and those 9:40 and 9:50 guys are going to haunt their footsteps.

all that said, D3 offers a lot of great opportunities and some better small academic schools, as well. check out nyu and haverford on the east coast. i wish i'd considered D3 possibilities more carefully.

9:20 might win a state title in half the states, in the other half it might not even get you to state. There are hundreds of kids who run 9:20 every year in California. You'll be lucky to be allowed to walk on at a major DI program with a 9:20; even luckier if you get any competitive opportunities or attention from the coaches.