Class of 2024 college recruits

Really worth noting that Nicki Southerland commitment to Notre Dame because its a big one and worth more than a tiny line buried in a huge social media post. Southerland is a two time Indiana state champion in the 1600 and 3200 and both those victories came during the Sophia Kennedy/Addy Wiley era which is a significant accomplishment. Nicki also won a national title in the mile at the RunningLane Track Championships and was a top 10 finisher at Footlocker (Champs). Her pickup means the Irish were able to recruit two of the best runners in the state in Southerland and fellow Indianan Gretchen Farley. Look for more big things from her in her senior season and in college.

she did. is this an attempt to be pedantic in how I worded it? the point is a Gear is following a Gear to Arkansas.

Also worth mentioning that Orono's Ruth White has committed to Boise State. White (4:58/10:30/16:56xc) is a 6 time state champion and a 2 time New England champion.

Lauren Ayers headed to Utah. She was the Oregon state 3000 champ last season and ran 2:12/4:50/9:57.

Isabel Allori from Liberty Common High School in CO has committed to Notre Dame (2:11.84; 4:52.64; 9:56.82; 16:51.70).

Allori finished fourth in the 3200 at Arcadia,14th at Nike Cross Nationals, and is a three time CO state champion (1600, 3200, and XC).

Zawatski to Colorado. She must have worked very hard for this

Notre Dame now has commitments from three of the current top ten girls for the class of ’24 based on combined times in the 3200 (outdoor ’22) and 5k XC (current season): Allori (#3); Mary Bonner Dalton (#5); and Nicki Southerland (#7).

The remaining top 10 for the class of ‘24 are: 1. Rachel Forsyth; 2. Bethany Michalak (NC State); 4. Payton Godsey (NAU); 6. Addison Knoblauch; 8. Allie Zealand; 9. Ruth White (Boise State); and Logan St. John Kletter (UNC).

Why has Notre Dame been able to get so many good athletes?

I get that Stanford (academics) and NAU (only running) get a certain type of person due to what they're strong in, but how does a rank ~20 college with a non-podium XC team get that many people?

* I meant outdoor 3200 times for 2023, not 2022. Sorry.

Notre Dame’s women’s team finished #7 in 2022 and #5 in 2021 in cross country. Stanford (US News #3) is the only university ranked academically ahead of Notre Dame (US News #20) that has similar women’s cross country results recently, although Stanford has finished behind ND the last two years.

If a female distance runner is looking to go to a top 25 ranked academic institution and an arguably top 15 cross country program, the current comparable schools besides Stanford are Georgetown (US News #22(t)), UNC (US News #22(t)), and UVA (US News #24). All are great schools that allow athletes to compete at the highest level academically and athletically.

Notre Dame brings in a limited number of female athletes for official visits. Georgetown and ND make offers to female athletes at the end of official visits. Coaches at some other schools, on the other hand, bring in a higher volume of athletes for officials and will not provide an offer during the visit. After completing your other visits, you have to tell them that their school is your top choice or, in some cases, final two. Only then will they tell you the offer. It’s problematic to eliminate schools with good scholarship offers when you don’t know what’s behind door number two. This can result in ending the recruiting process at schools and moving forward with the schools like ND that are up front about the scholarship.

Roster size is another factor. If the school has 68 women versus 32 women on its track and field roster, that is going to impact athletic scholarship money. Available athletic scholarship money will also fluctuate at programs year-to-year based on the number of upperclassmen on the current roster. If a school has 8 of its top runners who will be seniors when your child will be a freshman, it will likely impact the athletic scholarship money available that freshman year. ND does not have that issue for the high school class of ’24.

ND also does not bring in a high number of undergraduate transfers due to the university’s restrictions, so an athlete does not have to worry as much each year about five more transfers coming in to jump over her.

Four distance coaches (two for men and two for women), and a focus on distance are also positives at ND for distance athletes.

On the other hand, you better be able to deal with cold weather.

That makes sense to me. I ran at a very well-regarded D3 as I wasn't fast enough for D1 yet still was fast and had very good grades / test scores. I obviously didn't receive athletic $ but I didn't know how some coaches acted with that.

Out of curiosity, why don't they take many transfers?

Big get for Michigan State as the very fast Rachel Forsyth has committed to follow her older sister and run for the Spartans. Rachel is a two time Michigan state champ and would have had many more titles if her junior season hadnt been blown up by serious injury and sickness. She has run 56.7/2:06/4:41/10:02 and holds the fastest 5K XC time so far this year at 16:18. Forsyth is in national title conversation this year and if she stays healthy should have a dazzlingly fast track season before shipping off to East Lansing.

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