I am enrolled in an NCAA DI school but not on the track team. Can I enter in DI meets and compete unattached?
I am enrolled in an NCAA DI school but not on the track team. Can I enter in DI meets and compete unattached?
Yes.
talk with the team's coach and they should be able to get you entered
DirectAthletics.com is your friend
Zante wrote:
DirectAthletics.com is your friend
This is the entry method for most college meets. You can search for meets that allow "unattached" athletes and enter.
Some (very few) meets are not on direct athletics. For example, stanford used to not be on direct athletics, no idea if they moved to direct athletics since then, though.
You can also search for college only meets in your area if you're not seeing enough "unattached" meets in your area to create a "season" for yourself. Sometimes a coach will let you in if you email them, even if it isn't open to unattached athletes. It's always worth the time it takes to email. I've had a few coaches let me do that, they just didnt publish my result.
Try to find meets at your level. Look at past year's results. For instance, if you are an 18 minute guy a meet where dead last was 1510 last year isn't going to be fun. By the same token, if you are a sub 15 guy, a meet where the winning time was over 16 last year probably won't provide any competition. XC is a bit different as it feels good to win even if you're crushing the competition and you generally have to be very bad to dfl. For xc, you just want to look for meets that aren't tiny, ie more than a handful of teams run it.
I walked onto a DI team and ran twice in the Kit at the World's Most Famous Track Stadium, Mt Sac in Cali.
I competed in D1 xc races unattached back in th 80's.
If your school has a home meet, I would ask to run and even volunteer to set up the xc course pre meet and help with tear down. Become a "friend of the program."
If you are going to run a 25 minute 5k, then, I would pass on the race.
Most track meets there us a way to sign up online. Smaller meets you can e-mail the coach at that college to run open or unattached sometimes. Some schools won't allow this but doesn't hurt to try them all when looking for races.
citius5000 wrote:
Most track meets there us a way to sign up online. Smaller meets you can e-mail the coach at that college to run open or unattached sometimes. Some schools won't allow this but doesn't hurt to try them all when looking for races.
Yes I did this. Our school hosts 3 lowkey cross meet and 4 indoor meets. I would email the coach the week of and he would get me in, always free of charge too.
Eventually ended up making the team and being on the cross travel squad. So I am a firm believer in if the coach won't let you enter and give you the chance to show what you have, he is a terrible coach and you don't want to run there anyways.
The real D1 meets do not allow unattached runners.
But the majority of middle-of-the-pack caliber meets will?
D2 and D3 usually and low level D1.
Long ago I was running unattached at a college open, and a late entry stepped onto the track and dusted us all.
Frank Shorter
factoid wrote:
The real D1 meets do not allow unattached runners.
The majority do.
By real you mean probably the stanfords wiscos or prenats. And in that case he isn't ready for those so it doesn't matter.
Please list 5 real D1 meets that will allow an unattached runner.
factoid wrote:
Please list 5 real D1 meets that will allow an unattached runner.
The 5+ I ran in to make my college team that is perennially a d1 top 20 in the nation team.
From the Notre Dame website for their meet. They capitalized it, not me.
Entry will be open ONLY to collegiate institutions who have received invitation.
Then tell us the team so we can verify because the top 20 teams did not run 5 invitational last year. They ran 3 or 4 and Nuttycomb or Prenats were one of them.
factoid wrote:
From the Notre Dame website for their meet. They capitalized it, not me.
Entry will be open ONLY to collegiate institutions who have received invitation.
And what do you think that means? You sit around hoping the coach sees your strava and invites you?
No, you email the coach, let them know your times (ya know so you don't run 20 mins in the 5k), and they enter you to run.
I don't know why you are so insistent on arguing this. You are reading websites, I HAVE DONE IT IN REAL LIFE.