Good Division III Schools for Running

haverford, swarthmore, bates

get a master at Bates...that will make you a MasterBater!!!

Sewanee:The University of the South. Best place to train east of the Mississippi.

Just check out the NESCAC conference and pick your favorite, dude.

If those are sophmore times then you have a good chance at going to a pretty decent to good d1 school, especially given you have another two track seasons.

dean moriarty wrote:

Just check out the NESCAC conference and pick your favorite, dude.

Or the UAA. Both excel in academics and XC/T&F.

Willamete, in Salem Oregon is a pretty nice school from what I hear. They have a pretty good cross and track program also. The campus is also georgeous.

Elitist Easterners.

Sewanee

www.sewanee.edu

athletics.sewanee.edu

Allegheny College in Meadville, PA

great school, great coach, great athletes

Tom Donnelly at Haverford is a great coach - his record of improving guys at your level (and slower) is outstanding. You would probably improve a great deal under him while getting an excellent education. I'd recommend you call him - his number is probably on the website.

I've heard good things about Williams, Amherst and Tufts as well.

Calvin College in Grand Rapids Michigan. Good academics, top notch running program. Brian Diemer (Bronze in the steeplechase in 1988 olympics) is one of their coaches. They go to nationals in XC every year and usually have 4 or 5 distance guys at nationals in Track.

Wheaton College (IL) Very good liberal arts academics, Average SAT 1336. Undergrad enrollment 2,400 with a few hundred grad students. Great pre-med program. Philosophy Department is very well respected. Good XC and track, placed 12th at D3 XC last year with 2 freshman in their top 5. Christian school (no alcohol), so if you're looking to party it's not for you.

Calvin has won 3 national titles (2000, 2003,2004) and been second second every other year since 1999 I believe. (Diemer got the bronze in '84 BTW)

They also have good, tough academics from what I hear.

Admittedly Calvin has a strong running program, but unless you're looking to hang around a bunch of stiff, Dutch reform religious kids, stay away. If this is your kind of place, go for it...but be warned.

Rather than just plug my own school...

In general, what you'd want to do is find a school that will suit you academiclly, socially, personally and athelticlly. Schools with good running and good academics, likely in these confernces, plus a few others, like Harverford

NESCAC (all those New England schools. I can never remember them all) good running and school. Some have said it's a bit too perfect up there.

NCAC (Allegheny, Denison, Kenyon, et al). Not perhaps the strongist athleticly, though definatly a place to excel, very good academics. As a conference, sends probably 5-10 guys to Nats in track.

OAC (Otterbein, JCU, Ohio Northern, Baldwin Wallace, Mt. Union, etc) a lot of good runners, prehaps not not quite as top-tier academiclly, though certainly not schools for the stupid.

UAA (formerly the Nerdy Nine, now more like the Nerdy Eight: Case Western, UChicago, WashU, Emory, Rochester, NYU, a couple more I can't think of) all great schools, good runners. Good choice if you want a larger school and a chance to travel to meets.

SCIAC (or what ever the acronym is--Clairmont, Pitzer, Scripps, Mudd, Pomona) usually send a team or two to Nats, fine if you don't mind L.A.

Washington & Lee:

SAT - Verbal Range (25-75%): 660-730

SAT - Math Range (25-75%): 660-720

Students in top 10% of HS class: 86%

Seriously, it about the most beautiful campus you will find, in the mountains of Virginia in a small historic town. The weather is great, the winters are moderate (no NE or MW cold to deal with) and the summers aren't that bad if you stay around. There's also a lot of great places to run and the team environment is great. The team is very young, placed 4th at SE Regional this year, won conference last two years, and with the new system in place will have a very good chance at qualifying for nationals the next couple years. E-mail me if you've got any questions.

If running is a slightly higher priority than education, then I recommend Haverford. Great school, great coach, great campus, and most of all -- great tradition. Also, the entire Haverford area is awesome...and fits your criteria as a true liberal arts school.

However, if academics are a slightly higher priority than running (but you still want to be in a good running program training under a very good coach), then you may want to consider Carnegie Mellon -- especially if you would be interested in theater (great program) or (of course) computer science (which I'm guessing you're not based on your thread).

Hoovis

I would look at Albion, based on your times you would fit very well you would not be the best but you would not be in over your head, the other school you may look at is Oberlin and Hanover. Most D3 coaches will be more then willing to talk to you so give them a call. From my experience the coaches at Albion, Calvin and North Central will tell you flat out what they think with no lies in terms of your potential and where you will fit in on the team and academically.