Lafayette College

XC/TF is a dumpster fire. The head track coach is terrible. Bad recruiter, bad administrator, just does not do a lot for the athletes. They had a bright spot there when Mike DuPaul took over the men's XC program and they started pumping out guys in the 24:xx-25:xx range, took 2nd at Patriot League one year, but he's at UMBC now.

Academics is the opposite. Good school, good connections and prospects. A bit of little brother syndrome with nearby Lehigh, but overall a good liberal arts school. Similar to Lehigh, Colgate, U of R, etc.

If you want to run well in college and enjoy athletics, do not go there. If you don't care much about running and just want a good school, it would be a fine choice. Alternative schools with a similar academic culture and location (but much better running) would be Temple, William and Mary, Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, and Bucknell. If you can get onto the team, consider Villanova or Georgetown. If you can get into the school, UPenn or Princeton could be a good fit.

4:24/9:30 guy here and didn't place too well at my state meet, so I wont be able to run at the Ivy's probably. I applied to almost all of them since I have good grades and both of my parents went to Ivy's and they care a lot about going to a "prestigious" school.

Go to Carnegie Mellon. Extremely prestigious, fantastic program, similar location.

Lafayette is going to cut their men's program within 2 years. This is a 100% fact. They got 2nd to last in XC, last by a lot indoors, and will be last again outdoors. They aren't giving the college any reason to not cut them.

Their only distance freshman is a 4:41 walk-on miler, while their rivals have very strong freshmen.

Lehigh's freshmen: Zahn 14:42 and 8:20, Smigo 24:52 8k and 30:38 10k and 2:26 1k, Walter 4:17, 1:54

Colgate freshmen mile times: 4:10, 4:12, 4:18 and a few low 4:20s

Bucknell freshmen: two at 1:54, another a 4:09 and 8:25, two more at 4:19 and 4:20.

As the other team's freshmen improve down to 4:00 mile and 1:50, Lafayette will be in a downward spiral with their guy just trying to break 4:30.

Stay far away.

I would avoid it if you can. Stay away from those type of D1 programs that put up worse results that the average D3 school. Especially since all of their peers in the Patriot League who have historically sucked alongside them (like Colgate) are now improving.

ur gonna have way more fun and be more competitive at a top D3. Their teams would beat Lafayette in a duel meet

It's basically this. Lafayette is a sneaky good academic school that nats above it's level in northeast recruiting, and grad school placement. Surprisingly strong alumni network.

For running why not look at the NESCAC schools or Haverford j hopkins etc.?

Similar academics and you would be an important part of the team with your times.

some folks eyeballing walkon roles seem to have it confused with roster activity. "on the team" is not the same as "getting meets." it may, depending where you rank, be more like the guy on the bench on the soccer team. you then need to see how many "games" you get into. you need to be comfortable with what level of activity it looks like a guy with your times gets. and to me some of the walkon sensibility, if not used much, is being able to say you were D1. some people like that. some people want to run and compete. i wasn't interested in a bench role when i was offered D1 walkon. i looked D2/NAIA where i got scholarship offers, went D3 where i felt most wanted and best financials. i deployed my concerns about school quality ahead of time in terms of applications where i was only deciding among schools i wanted to attend and had applied to. this warded off lousy schools offering money.

i would weigh up how many meets someone with your times gets, and consider UAA or Nescac with similar academics.

but aren't you a bit late to be shopping as a senior? most serious schools have early fall admissions deadlines.

you can tell how many meets you would get by looking at "all performances" on TFRRS for the school and seeing how many times they used the guys with times you approximate. they might get a full schedule. they might get one meet. if there name shows up one event, one meet, and you are faster, you make the team but you risk that usage. if they have 5 times in the event or 8 times across a few events, you will be busy like a full team member and it's not just an honorific.

I just briefly talked to the coach, is it rude to ask him if he believes the program will be cut?

You can ask him, but he won't tell you what he really thinks.

No, it reflects looking out for your interests and appropriate due dilgence. Also, per tfrrs.org list of all performances on the team, making adjustments off of your listed times, you'd be third best 3000m runner and 4th best mile runner in their 2024 indoor season. And per runcruit estimates, you are squarely in recruit standards, not walk on, so play a good hand and you might get some money to run there.

It's an acceptable question to ask, but Dentino really doesn't understand the college landscape yet. He was a high school coach for 5 years, zero college coaching experience, and he just joined Lafayette's staff about 13 months ago.

The previous distance coach left in July of 2022. The head coach Curcio was unable to get anyone to take the job because of fears of the program being cut. All the qualified applicants ran away once they learned how doomed the program is. They actually went nearly 6 months without a distance coach because NOBODY would take the job. Alumni wouldn't even take the job.

Dentino is so naive he didn't think why nobody else would take the job. He will be coaching high school again within 3 years.

You should ask Dentino why most of his top distance runners become injured. Oehrlein was healthy for 3.5 years, then Dentino came and Oehrlein got such a massive stress fracture that he still isn't healthy enough to race in grad school at Northeastern.

Lustgarten was their top returning women's distance runner and has been injured this entire year. Arangala was their top men's XC runner this year and was injured most of this indoor season. Chukoskie ran sub 14:50 in the 5k as a freshman and has been injured ever since.

It is already clear that the team has no faith in Dentino based on strava posts and quotes in the school newspaper.

"Senior Sam Fowler, who was the third finisher for the men in 74th, said that assistant coach Anthony Dentino wanted the team to get out fast and then maintain its pace as the course
became hillier.

Fowler, who likes to start races conservatively then gain ground at the end, said that he thought the race plan back fired a little.

“It bit us in the butt a little, going out fast,” Fowler said. “Some of the guys weren’t able to turn over in those last couple of miles of the race.”"

lafayettestudentnews.com

Cross country teams compete at Patriot League Championships

Grace Sanborn

The men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Colgate to compete in the Patriot League Championship last Saturday. The women finished sixth out of 10 teams, their best finish since the 2020-21 season, while the men fi...

Link:lafayettestudentnews.com/153996/sports...

Where do these fears that they are cutting the program coming from? Lafayette's lack of success is not new. They have always suffered from a lack of scholarships and funding. This does not mean they are getting cut as a program.

Track programs, in the DI landscape, are not cut for competitive reasons. They are typically cut when a school needs to address a Title IX compliance issue and does not want to add a women's team. Great programs have been cut while historically mediocre programs continue to plod on.

Schools with more successful teams and more resources have cut track - Clemson, Brown, William and Mary. Fortunately those teams were able to save their programs temporarily, but are still at risk. Uconn, Maryland, Towson, Delaware and others weren't able to save their men's teams.

Lafayette has 23 sports, which is a lot. Football, lacrosse, and baseball have large rosters which present Title XI issues. Lafayette has always had strict roster size limits for that reason. They don't have the money to add another women's sport.

Lafayette's indoor track is unusable because it's so old. Their outdoor track is in desperate need of a resurface. They just had to change their XC course so they could expand the soccer stadium, now their course is 7.5k instead of 8k. There are plans circulating to build indoor turf facilities on the cross country course.

To sustain their track team into 2030 and beyond, they will have to spend over 1 million dollars to renovate both tracks. Combined with their Title IX trouble and not having the 1 million to spend, they are better off cutting the team.

Loyola of Maryland, in their conference, has also cut track and they don't even have football (football always causes Title IX issues). So Lafayette can cut it and not catch heat because they aren't the first in their conference to do so.

"Similar" is not a word I would use in a sentence comparing Lafayette to Temple or Pitt. The socioeconomics and general "culture" of Patriot League schools cannot be compared to second tier PA state schools, especially Temple. Lafayette still primarily serves precious rich kids who wouldn't last one Friday night in North Philly.

No athletic aid at Patriot League schools

Are you sure, I had a teammate two years back who is at BU on scholarship now.

Why did Quinn Worell, a 4:10/1:52 commit to run at Lafayette?