US HS studs doing notning in ncaa cross

Looking further, most of the Americans in the top forty were either all-time greats in hs or fourth or fifth year seniors.

Great hs runners: Rocky Hansen, Gary Martin, Colin Sahlman, Tayvon Kitchen, Simeon Birnbaum.

Seniors: Lawler, Visser, Schoppe (4:09/8:52 2020, now 7:38), Walsdorf, Sands (4:24/9:24 2021, now 7:39), Hogan (2022, 4:05/8:47), Nats

Others, Aiden Smith and Ethan Coleman, juniors.

That is going back to 50.

Smith and Coleman both HS class of 22 as well

Yet you still sound jealous.

Rocky Hanson ran 3:58/8:35 in 2023. One of the guys who was faster is still on his Mormon mission, and at least one other (Owen Powell) is on redshirt. Good things are incoming.

He said hard not impossible. These aren't exactly a ton of examples considering this goes back to the 60s and we have had hundreds of studs not finish anywhere near that in that timeframe.

Btw, Hansen himself was 100th last year, so there ya go. It takes time to develop a clean talent.

Hansen was a pretty immediate success. 6th at Nuttycombe as a freshman and 2nd as a sophomore. The only guys to beat him in either of those races were Graham Blanks (senior aged junior), Nico Young (senior), Ky Robinson (senior), Habtom Samuel, Parker Wolfe (senior), and Jackson Sharp (5th year senior).

Just injuries and stuff with NCAAs

for one thing--we have pussyfide cross-country. cross-country is supposed to be hard and grueling. instead we have got PRs on our minds. i was part of the NCAA 1986 cross-country organizing commitee and worked as a recall starter and in the chute--and coaches whining about the heat in tucson (73 degrees is hot), and the hills were too hard, and the i told the whimpy coaches that we actually moved the course from the sheraton el conquistador which had 800 ft in elevation change to la canada which had 300 ft in elevation change. the kids today cannot handle hills, sand, tall grass--thats what i see.

second-they need to prepare for three seasons and academics

we are so stressed out that we cannot even spell correctly

Don’t throw stones at glass houses…😉

Good point

You are right. But in total there are a decent amount.

1st- Bob Kennedy, Edward Cheserek [ american HS system] Lindgren [ could not run as a frosh, but surely would have won],

2nd Adam Goucher

3rd - Pre

4th - Ritz, Hernandez [ redshirt], Nico [ spring race] and kevin sullivan [ canada]

5th Puskedra and Sanchez

7th Chris Derrick

11th Webb [ but top 8 most of the way and based on region result would have been close to top five].

German Fernandez- very likely top ten if he had not fallen late in the race.

I'm sure I am leaving some out.

But yes, these are generally exceptions.

I'd still expect a few of our top US HS stars to make an immediate impact/be very competetive each year [ like Nico recently, like Rocky did early in his frosh year until he got hurt. ]

I agree that possibly lately there has been more emphasis and focus on getting as good as possible in high school [ starting very early] and putting up monster times rather than looking longer term.

OP said he isn't focused on youn guys. He is pointing out that 95% of the guys wr gushed about as future Olympians and all time greats, are mere mortals.

Yeah, he had a massive jump over one year and there’s probably more to the story than just college development.

It is hard for a 18-19 year old American kid to line up against a 28-29 year old former professional runner from Kenya.

Level the playing field. You will see more HS runners go to college, develop and become better runners overall in the 20's and 30's.

First of all, HS kids are looking to peak during junior year outdoor track season. Those are the only times that matter. That’s why the lack of improvement from junior to senior year for sooo many of these kids leaves many D1 coaches feeling snookered. But shame on these coaches for not doing their homework and actually learning how to evaluate character, commitment and upside. The amt of kids who quit ivy x teams by senior year hovers around 50% - those kids were just using their junior year track time as a hook to get ivy admission - very few actually care about developing in college. Buyer beware :)

Hanson had either an injury or illness which accounted for him flopping to 100th.

That’s not true. Just about any HSer takes their senior very seriously and want’s to run as fast as possible. Peaking during a junior isn’t possible anyway. Can you name a runner that you that think tanked his senior year after receiving a scholarship?