North Carolina Central, NCAA D1.
Before some laugh, they had a sub-11 100m sprinter and a sub-48 400m person, spring 2017. North Carolina Central in Durham, NC had two 1500m men, spring 2017. Both were 5 plus 1500m runners. Before ridiculing them, one was a sub-52 400m runner and the other was a 1.93m HJ athlete.
asking for a friend wrote:
Suppose you have a HS senior whose best time is 5:00 in the 1600. This was achieved on a substantial amount of training (50+MPW for years), and he is better in the 1600 than in the 800, 3200, or any other event. He has a great work ethic but just doesn't have any talent.
It would obviously be impossible for him to walk-on to the vast majority of D1 schools (and most of the upper-tier D2 ones) in the country, but would there be at least one D1 school that would let him join the team and allow him to represent that school in at least one meet a year? If so, which one(s) would it be? Assume that this has to be done with legit methods, not shady ones (like bribing the coach), and that his academics are good enough to get him accepted into almost any school in the country.
I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find 1 or 2 schools that are "technically" DI but have awful programs. Honestly though, they're probably gonna be weird schools off the beaten path. Same with any DII or DIII schools willing to take a 5:00 miler. If this person has academics good enough for pretty much any school (as you say) then they should be picking their school based on that. They can run on the side, either training themselves or joining their school's run club.
Bonkers wrote:
asking for a friend wrote:
Suppose you have a HS senior whose best time is 5:00 in the 1600. This was achieved on a substantial amount of training (50+MPW for years), and he is better in the 1600 than in the 800, 3200, or any other event. He has a great work ethic but just doesn't have any talent.
It would obviously be impossible for him to walk-on to the vast majority of D1 schools (and most of the upper-tier D2 ones) in the country, but would there be at least one D1 school that would let him join the team and allow him to represent that school in at least one meet a year? If so, which one(s) would it be? Assume that this has to be done with legit methods, not shady ones (like bribing the coach), and that his academics are good enough to get him accepted into almost any school in the country.
I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find 1 or 2 schools that are "technically" DI but have awful programs. Honestly though, they're probably gonna be weird schools off the beaten path. Same with any DII or DIII schools willing to take a 5:00 miler. If this person has academics good enough for pretty much any school (as you say) then they should be picking their school based on that. They can run on the side, either training themselves or joining their school's run club.
The OP didn't ask if there were "any DI teams that weren't weird and on the map"...the OP asked "is there at least one DI school" period...and the obvious answer is "yes." Of course they're going to be weird & off the beaten path by the very nature that they're letting a 5:00 dude walk-on...but they are DI. Not that ANYONE should run for that school...but it meets the OP's original qualifications. And I'm not naming my school...too embarrassing LOL...but it's already been named on this thread.
Agree 100% but the whole premise is ridiculous in the first place...50 mpw for years and can't break 5:00 and is worse at longer distances? There is no such unicorn.
illiniowl wrote:
Agree 100% but the whole premise is ridiculous in the first place...50 mpw for years and can't break 5:00 and is worse at longer distances? There is no such unicorn.
Sure there is.
And it may be weird for a DI school to let on a 5:00 guy but a majority if DIII schools will gladly accept a 5min guy. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong.
Collage Runner wrote:
I'm sure you could walk onto a D1 school somewhere. There are a lot of teams out there and some REALLY bad ones. Who needs D1 though? Go to Division 2 Rollins college in Florida and be their #1
Mens 5k Team Avg: 22:07 (#1 Runner - 19:57 )
Women's 5k Team Avg: 30:02 (#1 Runner - 25:10)
I'm sure there are worse, but haven't seen anything like this before..
You can't be serious? I'm 57 and ran a 19:55 last fall and I'd be their #1 runner!?! That's a sad state of affairs! ?