Biggest improvement you've seen from junior to senior year

For Boys -

11.25/23.9 (100/200)as a junior, 10.21/21.08 as a senior

2:01/4:45/10:18 (800,1600, 3200) as a junior, 1:55/4:03/9:02 as a senior

For Girls

8.25m shot / 22m jav / 27.8m discus (didn't make it out of districts) as a junior, 12.60m shot (4th at state) / 37.5m jav (state champion) / 41.3m discus (state champion)

Jeeeeez, 4:45 to 4:03???

Not the answer you're looking for, but it's probably in someone who just started running in junior year lol. Not someone with good established PRs.

Side note: I think a lot of people fail to account for this when they see a massive leap forward in a runner. They are discovering their potential, they aren't hacking training theory.

he must be best at the mile. 1:55 to 4:03 to 9:02 is surprising - slows done almost none from 800 to 1600 but a lot from 1600 to 3200

Katherine Berube - Edina MN - a 27:05 5K junior year, to 18:11 5K senior year.

Zach spears - Eden Prairie MN - 17:19 junior year to 15:54 senior year

Peter Spethman - St Cloud Cathedral Mn - 17:56 to 16:42

Justin Polonnio - Green Hope NC - 18:12 to 15:59

Max Johnson - Wayzata - 18:01 to 16:17

Douglas Gledhill - Mount Tabor NC - 17:51 to 15:24

Josh Jarpey - Centennial MN - 17:48 as a soph to 21s as a junior to 16:10 as a senior.

Found an interesting story about him:

mn.milesplit.com

Alumni Focus: Josh Jarpey

Ryan Kotajarvi

Alumni Focus of former Centennial High Schoo runner, Josh Jarpey. Jarpey now runs at Winona State.

Link:mn.milesplit.com/articles/279749/alumn...

Nathan Gruenwald (brave like Gabe? Based on her obituary, no they are not related). 19:09 to 16:55.

My junior year I ran a 4:42 1600.

My senior "year," as in the year I graduated I ran a 4:07 1600.

that's insane! what was your training leading up to you're 4:42 in your junior year and then what was your training leading up to your senior year? Also where you at now??? Did you ultimately break 4?

Is that to say you ran a solid 1600 after getting some college coaching in the fall? I'm imagining some solid improvement from beginning of junior year (assuming that's when the slower time was recorded) to end of senior, go to college and pour on the mileage and voila?

Kid came out from the soccer team his 11th grade year, but rarely attended practices and came to a handful of meets because of commitments to club soccer. His senior year, with soccer over and no club soccer, he was dedicated to the track and he ran to his true potential. We had another senior who was a 4:10/9:30 guy so having a training partner like that really helped.

Shuayb Hussein from Wayzata - 16:58 in 2018 to 15:19 in 2019. Went from Wayzata’s JV to qualifying individually for NXN in only a year, without the team qualifying.
Ethan Hanold from Wayzata - 17:36 in 2020 to 15:47 in 2021.
Manny Santana from Wayzata - 17:17 to 16:20.
Andrew Vos - 17:06 in 2020 to 15:53 in 2021.
Will Jones - 18:10 in 2011 to 16:40 in 2012.
Jake Campbell - Edina - 18:16 in 2010 to 16:11 in 2011.
Vince Puzak - MPLS Southwest - 17:53 in 2011 to 16:18 in 2012.

Friend (female) in college went from an 18:12 5k (junior year) to a 16:16 5k (senior year indoor… no outdoor because of covid).

That's insane

We were hoping for a 1:53.x from him actually. He dropped the 4:03 in the 1600 at the state meet. He won by over 10 seconds. Despite knowing that he had 3 more races to run (the 800 in 90 minutes, the 3200 and a 4x4) he said he felt great at the 800m mark (he split 1:59) and he thought he could really push for sub 4 minutes. So he drained the tank, but narrowly missed. He went into the open 800 as the clear favorite but he said he had "dead legs" during the last 150 and cruised home in 1:55. (He went on to run 1:49 in college). He DNFed in the 3200. He said he knew had nothing and wanted to save what he could for the 4x4. He ran anchor and split 49.3, his worst 4x4 split of the season. But he still took us from 7th to 4th on that leg.

We had a guy on our team in HS who came out for XC his sophomore year and his best was 20:36 (5K), his junior year he ran 17:32 (5K) which was second best on our team.

He was a soccer player in the spring so he would skip track. However, the football coach saw him kicking a football once and begged him to come out for HS football and be the punter/kicker. So, he skipped XC and played football his senior year and made All-Region, All-Conference as a punter.

I still felt his potential was XC, however. I think he could have easily ran low 16's if he stuck with it and possibly ran in college. He wasn't good enough to punt in college (at least at high level)

Some kid in Texas started running jr year of hs xc and qualified for footlocker as a sr. However, you are probably asking because you hope to have huge improvements too. Unless you just started running and are very talented, it is not going to happen. A more common case is a guy starts running jr year and runs barely sub 6, ie low to mid 18s for xc.

The best you can do if you hope to improve bigtime is to build to 100 mpw once xc ends, over the late fall and winter and hold that through xc next year. This is 100 mpw with workouts, races, seasons, not a year of "base training".

19:17 junior year to 16:47 senior year

athletic.net

Hugo Luck

Hugo Luck - SC Cross Country results and photos on Athletic.net

Link:www.athletic.net/athlete/15774922/cros...

a kid from my high school went out for cross country junior year, not having run the other years. His athletic background: he was a basketball player. who knew that was good conditioning? Lol.

Basically, he rose through the ranks and made varsity that year, made it to the state meet and finished 77th place, 16.11.0 for 3 miles.

his senior year, he finished all-state 15th place, 14.58 for 3 miles. they also won state that year as a team. talk about getting a star recruit from outta nowhere! coaches, remember to swipe athletes from other sports, /s; they would not have beaten York without this guy who was previously a basketball player. (I wish I knew the story better, like who recruited him, but I don't know/don't remember the full story. it's possible he decided himself he was going to run XC junior year: to state the obvious, he was totally a natural)

I read that Grace Schager (3x state champ in Illinois) also played basketball and didn't run until her sophomore year, I believe. I think she was recruited by the track coach at Glenbard North who sent her an email.

athletic.net

Keith Dreyer

Keith Dreyer - IL Cross Country results and photos on Athletic.net

Link:www.athletic.net/athlete/16891227/cros...

(I also played basketball before I started cross country in high school).