Girls High School Cross Country - Slower as you age

Hmmm..... wrote:

My daughter is a freshman runner on her highschool cross country team. She has some talent and finished her first two races as the second runner on her team in both races.

A lot of the upperclassmen are telling her to enjoy it while it lasts because they all got slower as they got older and it will happen to her too. Is this just the blabbering of jealous upperclassmen getting beat by a freshman, or do girls generally get slower as they mature?

Hopefully they can find a cure for this toxic environment.

It could have something to do with girls having a harder time getting back to where they were fitness-wise when they return from an injury

Improvement is possibly wrote:

There was a senior girl running 5k’s 9 minutes faster than previous years

That girl went from running 27 minute 5ks junior year to being one of the best senior girls in the state/region senior year.

That’s not always the case. Natalie Cook went from not being the fastest nonsenior at the XC state meet in 2020 to winning both national XC meets in 2021.

So your best proof text had almost no actual improvement at long distance, despite gains at short to mid, 7.2 secs off 400 time, but only 8 secs off 800, 19 secs off 1600, but only 21 off 3200, and only 25 secs off 5k despite 25 secs could easily be lost by just a easy/short XC course.

5K times
2008 - 26:44
2009 - 20:11 (in the 24s first race)
2010 - 17:07

nh.milesplit.com

Christie Rutledge - Stats

Link:nh.milesplit.com/athletes/476105-chris...

LetsRun.com Forum Thread

Christie Rutledge of Fayetteville-Manlius

upstate runner who is slow12/06/2010 11:58am EST14 years ago

Photo from last year?http://media.syracuse.com/post-standard/photo/9025865-small.jpg

Thread:www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?th...

Now tell me that all the girls get slower as they age

Just to be clear the OP said high school not middle school. Girls dont go through puberty when they get a drivers license.

Some college coaches do that to them too

When I was in my HS program, our coaches struggled with talented girls who plateaued or regressed as they aged up. For one, they practiced some rather "old school" methods of coaching and training... poorly executed training plans, shaming people for bad performances, trying to motivate people by enraging them. Yeah, not great. Eventually, girls just stopped going out for track altogether. It became an emotional burden for them, and at times even traumatic. They went from being a 10x over championship team for their section to scoring a measly 6 points at championships.

I will never deny the reality that for many girls, physiological changes will affect their physical performance capabilities--in many cases, it could perhaps have negative effects. Throw in medications, hormonal birth control, other outside factors, and there's just a lot going on. BUT, how you approach coaching is huge for athletes no matter WHAT. Those HS coaches eventually decided perhaps they were part of the problem. They changed their attitudes and coaching styles, tried to become more understanding and informed, execute training better, etc. That team has made a comeback and is soaring to new heights--including the upperclass girls. Sending more girls to state championships than ever before and setting new records.

Coaches, do not underestimate the effect you have on your athletes performances.

Interesting. I didn't start running until 9th grade and I had already gone through puberty at that point - I went through puberty at age 12. But started high school cross country at age 14. I had conditioning from playing other sports though. I basically had overnight success in high school running (in my area, not nationally), I have to add that I had a really good coach though. I improved each year, though what slowed my progress was occasional injuries, not puberty.

For both my sister & I, puberty made us much faster runners. I had multiple athletic scholarship offers, and my sister had one.

To reiterate, I didn't run track or XC in middle school, but we did do time trials in PE class, after I went through puberty, my times were by far the best female runner in the school, whereas before puberty, I was one of the top runners in the school, but not the best. Before puberty, I was quite thin person, and I looked very weak. After puberty, I was still thin (5'7, 114 pds) but had a small amt of meat on my bones, which looked better.

**Interestingly, today I was looking up the athlete, Amaris Tyynismaa, on athletic net and I noticed she ran by farrrr her fastest 3200m time in 8th grade (10.32.94) but look at her now! 4th in the NCAA 5000m a few days ago, so she was still improving just not in a linear manor.

I didn't have an experience like this in high school, I did improve each year. Obvi, everyone is different.

athletic.net

Amaris Tyynismaa

Amaris Tyynismaa - AL Track and Field results and photos on Athletic.net

Link:www.athletic.net/athlete/7378702/track...

I think that if a girl gets injured during the season it’s harder to come back to full potential than it is for the boys

Good info

True that. I’ve never heard of her when she was in 11th grade

…but this thread is about girls XC?

Her teammate Marissa Ferebee went from 18:30s soph year to 16:25 junior year

Lily Beshears

2022 (freshman year) - 18:01

2023 (soph year) - 17:51

2024 (junior year) - 16:40