Ellie Shea college?

my guess is she's going to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. perhaps she hasn't even decided yet?

Up to 9 months now :)

NIL negotiations to offset school costs at Harvard.

Ivy don't have NIL collective

$360K. Silly decision if she chooses anIvy over Duke or Stanford or ND.

A friend of mine’s daughter goes to school with her in Belmont. Says that there is talk of her going to BU (which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me).

I honestly feel like that makes sense for her. Realistically, she is too fast for BU (still a great program obviously, she’s just on a different level) and her times are just more competitive than other recruits for that school. However, it seems like she really likes that track as she competes there often and it’s very close to home and what she knows. By looking at BU, she may feel like she has more control over her experience by being closer to her HS coaches.

Sounds like she is taking running seriously, and you sound like someone that grossly underestimates the benefits of living and training at altitude for distance runners.

Ah yes Bostons altitude of 20ft has massive benefits for distance runners

https://www.instagram.com/emergingelites/reel/C5JxsrnLtc-/

Shea to Boston University would be the dumbest decision ever. Boston hurts all of their top women. Liljegren and Prosser, and others. There are rumors of rampant eating disorders. They don't even have a viable outdoor track, they go to Harvard for practice.

She would be much smarter to go to Providence to stay close to home. They have a better team, better coach, and a track record of great development and producing tons of PR runners.

Or she can go to a team like NAU or OSU and instantly make them national championship favorites.

Even Boston college would be much better decision than BU.

A bit of an apology to Ellie and her coaches: previously I commented that I thought their approach was taking her backwards, but I think she performed just as well today as she did at last year's World XC (5 places lower, but the Ugandan team was a lot better this time around, so IMO that was the difference). I'm also intrigued by her telling Jon Gault she was treating this meet only as a "stepping-stone" to her outdoor track season, whereas I thought she'd been peaking for it.

With that said, I still think she needs to go to a college where she can fit into a strong team dynamic, and where she won't immediately be put in her own special category and encouraged to do her own thing. That's what she's had for the past few years -- it has its advantages, but it's one-sided. And as someone like Allie Ostrander would emphasize, balance and well-roundedness are conditions for longevity in the sport. So whatever her college choice -- to take 2 possibilities floated in this thread -- I hope it's more similar to NC State than to BU.

Yikes, I originally read it as BYU. 🥹

Ellie Shea herself said a few months ago that she was peaking for the U20 world xc championships, which is where you got that idea from.

Now that she is at the world U20 xc championships, Shea pretended that she never said that. Whatever. Shea is a quirky person who marches to the beat of her own drum.

At least Shea is running well again. Looks like we might get a Shea vs Hedengren vs Leachman 2 mile race at Brooks PR, which should be a really good race.

In fairness to her, I don't think she was pretending anything -- more likely that she simply changed her plans. She DNSed several indoor meets she had signed up for, so clearly she was initially planning a fuller indoor season leading up to World XC, but then decided against it. But the "her own drum" thing is certainly correct.

now wait, Belmont and Waltham are over 40 ft!

She decided to go to NC State in December. It's not a big deal to people at her high school. All her classmates are going to college, too. BHS has little interest in sports in general and Ellie isn't on the track team. But she's very well liked.

BDC: Now that you’re getting ready to graduate soon, what’s next? Do you plan on running at a collegiate level?

ES: I’m not entirely sure what my future will look like yet, but I’m
excited to just keep improving and getting better each year.

boston.com

Belmont High School senior Ellie Shea returns for third B.A.A. Invitational Mile

Faith Pinnow

Fresh off of the World Cross Country Championship in Belgrade, Serbia, Ellie Shea is ready to take on the pros on her home turf.

Open link

I talked to a girl last week at Arcadia who is friends with Ellie Shea. That girl told me that she has asked Ellie multiple times in 2024 where she is going to college, and Ellie keeps giving her the same vague answer that Ellie gave the interviewer. So even Ellie's running friends don't know what Ellie is planning.

However, that girl also told me that she doesn't believe when Ellie says "I'm not sure." She thinks that Ellie knows what she will be doing but for some reason doesn't want to say.

I'm not sure why Ellie is trying to keep her plans a secret. It's not like she has a million options. She can either run for a college team like most other girls do, attend college but run on her own like Allyson Felix did, or skip college and go pro when she graduates high school.

Ellie Shea seems too intelligent to totally skip college. And she doesn't seem like a team player. So I'm going to guess that she goes to college but doesn't run for the college's team.