Female Distance Running Recruiting

I've had a few girls in the 4:50-5:20 range in the last few years. I would guess there are more D1 schools who would recruit a girl who has run 5:10 as a junior than there are that would not. These won't be the best running schools though. You're not going to get recruited by teams that qualify for nationals every year. That doesn't mean they're horrible, though. There's probably some money in it for her, particularly if she's relatively better at XC.

No. The roster cuts start next year.

here's what's coming. any numbers anyone gives you are about to be fudged as transfer portal and the new roster limits come into play. the times are gonna go down for most d1s. this may start to push everyone else downward in terms of track teams or divisions.

so, be flexible and figure out where the fish are biting. do not assume old standards will still apply. and the standards were always kind of floating and not red lines anyway. a team might be better one year worse the next. it was always smartest to research them on TFRRS (meet reporting site) where you can literally see what times the kids are running for them this season. which is as close to informed as you are going to get of what it will take to make it. actual times past couple seasons. is my kid faster than everyone, midpack, or below their worst runner. if you are worse than their worst, don't even bother.

if they aren't getting d1 nibbles d3 has a lot of good academic schools in a handful of conferences (eg, nescac (williams amherst), uaa (NYU washu), centennial (hopkins haverford), sciac (pomona claremont oxy), saa (trinity), newmac (MIT)). there are also endless choices for merely above average students. some schools have cuts and are almost like d1s. some smaller schools take about anyone.

do your research. i worked my way down the rankings and found programs that would accept my scores and fit me for sports. others might want to stay in certain areas. just look at a ton of schools across varying divisions and see where you work best.

and then be prepared for the portal and roster limits to play havoc with who goes where. which is why i say research but at this particular time be flexible. all the changes may push times downward and make scholarship or cut schools harder to make. if you are a bright kid look around different schools in your SAT range. if one is tough to make the next might be easier. sometimes a school that finishes higher in meets may also be looser with budgets and rosters, sometimes not. eg we played pomona/claremont and they seemed to have tons of kids, despite being very good, like they weren't telling many kids "no," while i get the idea williams or hopkins are good but very picky and must either be turning away or having a cut after preseason. you can kind of tell because the times will just stop at a point, no one slower than some time is going to meets or making the team.

but, anyhow, my game was do some looking around at schools, make a long list, or use a college ranking, and come up with a few dozen schools that grab you. look them up on TFRRS and see how fast their kids run. compare yourself to that. if they are all faster than you, probably don't bother.

contact the coaches off the list, and i mean a few dozen, tell them grades scores times events finishes, or if you also play a team sport, send some good game film. drop the bait in the water and see who writes back. then maybe add a few more schools for ones who ignore you. outside the very best schools and very best state winning runners it's kind of self-recruitment for running. and you just see what coaches become interested and go from there.

and the deal with everything is changing right now is it's unpredictable what the standards even will be. so err on the side of leaving a bunch of bait to get a feel for what type school wants an athlete like you now.

last, the key seasons for running for recruitment are spring junior and fall senior. those are the times coaches will see before admissions/bigtime decisions. if some kid thinks he's gonna hit a grand slam his senior year, if he does it in may few coaches may care at that point. a lot of schools you're applying by december or january. and they may be making their decisions in fall or winter.

last last, the coaches want meet times and unless they are already enamored of those, aren't going to be suckered in by your unattained goals or theories on how next season might go. if they like you from your sales pitch they may care how the season is going and whether the goals are happening. but if it takes 415 to run someplace that means 415 (or very very close) in a meet already, not 430 last year but hoping to improve. and they aren't gonna want to get a bunch of update emails if you hit them up too soon.

Yes. I know that you have posted that before. Funny to hear every kid and parent say that their current time is 4:30 but bad weather and injury and sickness held them back from 4:10 which they plan to hit this year.

I am a firm believer in the Make them tell you no theory. If one of your kids wants to run in college, then have them send an email to the schools they desire to attend. Maybe they have the times, maybe they dont. You wll not know for sure until you try and are told no. You would be surprised. I have seen plenty of girls right around 5, little above, little below who earn scholarships to run at D1 schools.

Have the athletes look up the coaches email addresses and email them with their details, grades, PR's etc. Short and sweet, see what happens. If no response back wait a week or two and try again. No harm no foul.

How are her grades? Admissions preference through recruiting is huge in D3, and many top liberal arts colleges guarantee to meet 100% of demonstrated financial aid, with need-blind admission. If she has the grades to be at least within shooting range of good liberal arts schools, running can secure the spot, and aid package can make it a more sensible option financially even though it is D3. Williams, Vassar, Amherst, Middlebury, swarthmore, I know for sure fit the bill and a good 10 or so other nescacs and seven sisters do too.

Did you know that more than 1/2 of the attendees pay $90K per year?

Advise your athletes to use sports to get into the best academic school that fits them. The odds are high that none of your athletes will be pro athletes or even score at an NCAA Championship so make academic outcome the highest priority.

Great response, its shocking more kids arent doing it.

How do you know that every kid isn't doing it? And the advice is questionable. If a kid can go to Indiana for free or to Notre Dame for $360K, I would normally recommend Indiana.

It might change with new roster limits coming, but in the past, those times would usually get some interest from mid-majors or lower level DI schools along with all the other lower divisons. Could walk-on to some power 5 teams, but maybe not the top ones. Not sure about walking on to top ones going forward though with the new roster limits.

Went to a D

There's so many D1 programs and the thing with girls, there's numerous sub 5 girls that will just stop running after high school or go D3 vs most of the sub 4:15 guys try to go D1. So there's a lot of roster opportunities for a 5:10 girl in college, I've seen girls get roster spots with minimal running experience at lower level D1 programs. I was probably of equal ability to 5:10 girls mile I guess with a 4:20 and if I could go back I would've joined a D3 NESCAC schools vs going to a Patriots League/ America East level conference. The NESCAC schools were heavily recruiting guys on my level back then and I had no idea they were really great academic schools.

That sounds like a low level D1 kid. I have a girl with slightly better marks (closer to 5:05/11:05) who is getting offers from solid mid majors and weak big D1 schools around us. One other thing to note about my athlete is that they didn't move full time into running until their sophomore year. She's gotten a bit higher offers than I would have guessed based on previous athletes with her marks, and I think that's the big factor.

The main difference between this year and previous years is that walk on spots aren't available at the next tier up like they would have been in the past. On one of her visits her offer was contingent on a certain number of seniors NOT returning for a 5th year. She's also visited some high level D2s and has a few more visits lined up at D1s (guessing teams that missed out on their first targets and are moving into their second tier).

This is the general approach we tell ALL kids that want to run collegiately to take:

1. Identify your budget, preferred academic study, and how far you are interested in going from home.

2. Talk to HS coach, get a feel for what level you should begin searching at. Our staff has done this for awhile and can usually get pretty close, but it's okay to encourage athletes to cast a wide net if you are newer. It's so hit or miss where athletes find their best fit.

3. Look at conference and regional results for the region and level you are interested in. Eliminate schools that are way above your ability or don't offer your academic area. This usually generates a list of around 15 schools.

4. Fill out recruiting questionnaire and (BRIEFLY) email the event coach for each school on your list. Include PRs and academic scores. I would estimate athletes hear back from 2/3rds of schools.

5. If possible, visit a few of the closest schools over the summer for academic visits (it's fine to give coaches a heads up you'll be there in case they have a free moment). You'll learn a ton more about the college process just by going on the standard tours and if gives you a feel for what to ask if you do official visits later. You don't always have a ton of control over when official visits get scheduled, but we try to have kids avoid them during our championship season (the travel just wears them down and they don't perform as well).

6. When it comes to decision time, we recommend athletes try to find a school where they don't have to take out loans, slot into the top 10 from day 1, and would have a positive academic and social life even if running doesn't work out.

One girl I coach (currently a senior) was right around 5:00/11:00 as a sophomore. She got a lot of interest from P4 schools and Ivies (long story short, then she had injury problems and she has enough academic scholarship money coming her way that she can get a full ride without worrying about running). Another girl (currently a junior) was around 5:20/11:20 as a sophomore (and that was having to double in those events on the same day), and she's consistently done well at the state cross country meet. I had coaches from a nearby D1 school come up to me to talk about her at the state XC meet this season. Also at the state meet, another junior on the team (5:16 last year) was approached by a coach from another nearby D1 school.

So the short answer is yes, I would expect a girl with those times to get interest from D1 schools. The big caveat is that I don't know how all the changes over the next few years will affect things.

I would also like to chime in with the junior college route idea.

Even if they have good grades, they can come for 1 year, take some more basic classes and then move on after continuing to improve & compete against solid competition (and having a better "sales pitch" to bigger D1/D2 schools that they might be interested in)