Fastest high school kids who never ran a step again after finishing high school?

Usually it's kids who run into trouble with the law or trouble with grades in school or even some that would rather do drugs and party. Tyrese Cooper 400m runner comes to mind for recently.

No one wants to grow old and have high school being the time of their life, that's kind of depressing.

There are a lot of NAIA/D-2/D-3 talent individuals who decide to attend D-1 universities for academics and other reasons who stop at high school. 1:59ish 800m guys and 15:59ish 5K XC guys stop sometimes because they are attending a Power Five Conference D-1 school.

In my district there was a kid who was 4:20 miler. I can't remember 800 and 3200 times but the were give or take 9:30ish and 2 flat or so. He ran all 4 events all the time but qualified to state only in the 1600. He got some interest from the D2 and smaller D1 schools but really wasn't college material academically. There was a decent road race scene back then and after high school he seemed to disappear even from that. I only knew him well enough to chat at races so I don't know what happened to him. Probably moved onto something else in life.

A girl who qualified for NXN and Footlocker multiple times. She ran 4:25 1500 in HS.

My son ran 4:17/15:25 but gave it up in college. He is attending one of the top distance schools also.

1:54 800m, 4:14 1600m (State Champion) runner for EC Glass. He was a real talent.

Jalapeno wrote:

Fastest high school kids who never ran a step again after finishing high school? (Ie never ran in college competitively or anything else to do with the sport even though they had the talent )

Without naming any names name your examples.

This was the year 2000 so couple decades ago. We had a guy on my team who was a dickhead. I think he ran 4:22 in the mile and was recruited at a d1. He was a real idiot (for a pickup speeding through school parking lot burning tires), but he had decent leg speed.

There was another guy in my conference who ran a 910 3200m and went to a university in Florida and got hooked on drugs and he never competed again

Those are just some examples off the top of my head

I met some 9:20 guys in college that had no interest in coming out for XC and being a mid-packer. It was certainly a reasonable decision and they were more realistic than I was.

A few years before me, we had an 8:58 guy that received a scholarship to A.S.U., but dropped out after only a couple weeks and never ran seriously again. His dad was a runner and maybe pushed him too hard. One time I was running with the father and asked him how "Steve" was doing and received a detailed answer about a different runner named Steve. I guess they weren't even speaking at the time.

Ernie Lugo 1982, 15:36 Garret Mountian, 16:14 Holmdel, and 12:49 VCP

No clue of his track times but those are legit Northeast XC times, especially back in the 80s when courses were less manicured.

The great Claudia Lane (Woodward Park course record, 16:30.3, Footlocker champion x2) essentially ended her competitive career after HS. I think she ran a race or two as a college freshman at most.

"Ernie Lugo 1982, 15:36 Garret Mountian, 16:14 Holmdel, and 12:49 VCP"

Ernie ran in college. I raced against him frequently. Good guy.

Was he All-America in college? No.

Is he a doctor now? Yes. I suspect he prioritized his studies.

There was a kid in the Midwest, Illinois, I think, that was a legit talent. Sub-9 3200M and very low 4:00's for the 1600M. He went to college on athletic scholarship, a top 10 XC ranked school, but I don't think he ever competed collegiately.

this came to mind:

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/12/ken-cormier/

Female swimmers who have earned medals at State since 9th grade, medal at State every season in high school, but set their personal bests as club swimmers before high school often do not swim in college. This became an even bigger issue due to covid-19. Sprinters and runners were able to sprint & run, pandemic or not. Pools were closed during worse of covid-19 pandemic. Once many top swimmers, especially female swimmers missed a season, many stopped. This occurs with females in T&F in general more often than males. It is not uncommon for female sprinters and runners to set their personal best in 9th or 10th grade. It is not uncommon for girls with legit 59.xx to 64.xx 400m from 9th or 10th grade to not go out for T&F in college. [Please do not tell me 64.xx 400m is slow for females. Many 64-something 400m females from hs were 1600m runners.]

Who exactly are you talking about? Woods runs for Georgetown and had a faster 800. Only guy I know from ECG that matches those PRs did not win a state championship and was a D1 All American.

The Narwhal wrote:

There was a kid in the Midwest, Illinois, I think, that was a legit talent. Sub-9 3200M and very low 4:00's for the 1600M. He went to college on athletic scholarship, a top 10 XC ranked school, but I don't think he ever competed collegiately.

Soren Knudsen, went to NAU and never raced. Last I saw he was making YouTube videos trying to break funny world records.

He did run a fast(?) 5k at Azusa a few years ago but nothing after that and ran t unattached

Wise Old Man wrote:

The great Claudia Lane (Woodward Park course record, 16:30.3, Footlocker champion x2) essentially ended her competitive career after HS. I think she ran a race or two as a college freshman at most.

The list of runners who did nothing in college is pretty long, especially for girls. How many races did Sarah Baxter, Amber Trotter, Katelyn Kaltenbach or Chelsey Sveinsson run? Injuries or other issues ended their running careers early. But how many top runners just made the decision after high school not to compete at the next level even though the opportunities were there for them?

There are quite a few kids that were really fast in high school that never ran a race on the track again. Some of them are playing in the NFL.

vespy wrote:

Wise Old Man wrote:

The great Claudia Lane (Woodward Park course record, 16:30.3, Footlocker champion x2) essentially ended her competitive career after HS. I think she ran a race or two as a college freshman at most.

The list of runners who did nothing in college is pretty long, especially for girls. How many races did Sarah Baxter, Amber Trotter, Katelyn Kaltenbach or Chelsey Sveinsson run? Injuries or other issues ended their running careers early. But how many top runners just made the decision after high school not to compete at the next level even though the opportunities were there for them?

It's difficult to believe a runner would turn down a scholarship. Do you have any examples of ones that did?

My son turned down multiple offers.