Coaches want to spend the majority of their time recruiting athletes who are MUCH FASTER than their minimum standards. The standards exist so the coach doesn't have to waste time talking to every slow kid. All he has to do is email them the standards.[/quote]
I agreed with this earlier. It's finding a good fit that a coach is willing to take a chance on a walk-on but you better be prepared to commit and prove you belong before and during the experience. Your actions will be the truth, not what you have to say or promise.
I wouldn't read too much into indoor times or what it took to qualify for a final as those aren't that indicative of the athletes overall ability.
Like I said, get yourself in a position to have a chance, prove that you belong starting with performance and attitude before you get there and then every day you are there.
My coach told us on day one that his coach left him home from a meet one time because he missed a practice. He vowed to never let that happen again and didn't. I got the message pretty quick and made it a goal to never miss a practice or a meet. In 4 years I missed 3 practices and no track meets. Our second indoor meet of my freshman year Coach was only taking a van load to a big meet at Illinois. I only got to run on 3 cross country meets the previous fall but I never missed a practice. I ran a marathon on Nov 19th at 18 years old. On December 7th we ran an indoor intrasquad meet. I finished 3rd in the mile beating all but 2 of our NCAA qualifying CC team.
Again, my point is, things can change quickly for what appeared to be an average athlete who love to run and compete and has the right attitude about it. Just find the coach/program/team that has a record of helping average make great improvement over time.