Getting ignored by coaches with a 4:15 1600m

What part of the country are you in?

Gonna need to drop that 3200 and place high at your xc state meet. You can run in college with those times, but most likely not at the schools you want.

Which 15 exactly? If big name schools not surprised they might be ignoring you. Your 1600m time is great for high school tbh but the "big" programs won't even take a second look at you. Email others or think about going to D2 or even D3 (what u did) where you will more attention and develop better.

Find a burrito truck.

Yeah don’t share any of your times other than your 1600m when contacting coaches. I could see someone looking at your list quickly and thinking that you’re very mediocre (since everything but your 1600m is very average).

Make the 1600m the only number they see. Maybe add your 800m if asked, but be clear that you focus on the mile.

but what are the results?

where do you end up at states or other big meets?

what kind of kick do you have?

A 4:15 with a 57 second final 400 isn't the same as 1:02, 1:04, 1:06, 1:02

agree with the others about the 3200 and 5k. Those times are very medium, and shows that you are very weak aerobically, you haven't had an opportunity to run fast, or have been injured through cross. Those are all scenarios you'd rather not bring attention to.

It used to be that every good but not great high school runner said they were a 4:20 miler (even if they ran 4:29 or so). To claim to be a 4:20 miler was sort of a running joke. Everyone claimed they were a 4:20 miler and no one bothered to question it because the time was not great enough to question.

Now, with super shoes, better tracks, and running a slightly shorter distance, a 4:15 1600 is equivalent to being a 4:20 miler-good but not great.

As others are stated, you are probably contacting the wrong schools to get recruited.

You will get recruited if you contact schools with good but not great programs.

That's the only scenario I'd say is acceptable. If you just run in league meets, especially if you're in the midwest or somewhere windy and cold in the early spring, you won't hit the same times you could elsewhere. Basically - as a hypothetical - a 9:05 at Arcadia is probably a 'worse' time than a solo 9:10 on a cold and windy day.

Others I completely agree with. I'm astounded that a 4:15 1600 runner can't run 9:20 at the absolute worst though, especially with a weak 800 PR (that is, he's not a 800 runner who runs one mile per season).

april is a little late to be trying to adjust admissions or recruitment strategy. most selective schools, even the less high ranked ones, closed applications in january or february.

i agree with those saying you have probably either not done your research or misjudged where you fished. good d1s are usually looking more like 4-410. 415 is more compelling to the back half of d1. eg patriot league, not SEC.

if you did your research then applied to reach schools anyway, it's time to get in touch with schools who recruit 420 or 425 type people, and to realize you have picked an insane roster limits + portal timing to swing and miss.

if you didn't do your research, it's time to do it.

i think you'd be ok non points type back half of d1. i think depending what conference you might make noise in d3.

one reason i tell people to start with recruiting their sweetspot before moving to reach ideas is precisely this scenario. you are more excited about the elite. you only apply elite. elite turns you down. you gave yourself no safety. and to me you should have more schools in your wheelhouse than reaches. i want schools who want me competing for me, not to be begging some school to let me be their worst runner. weak athletic situation. no recruiting leverage. and if you make it they run you once a season as the last guy off the bench, with massive stakes to show you're worth keeping, and the risk you are the first out the door when they recruit the next year of kids.

maybe you can find some d1s still open to applications where your times fit. or d2s or d3s.

if you are a good academic student you may feel stuck. maybe see if someplace does winter admissions. and if you can find a coach to take you that timeframe.

if you were more about wanting to play sports, now is when to get flexible, find someplace still open and interested, and then lay down times for both the good of your team and for transfer consideration, and reconsider your situation in a year.

side point for lurkers reading this thread, but you need to attempt contact in junior spring or senior fall, throw out some bait, and if you don't get responses from places, you react in "weeks" and email a bunch more new places, not "months." by april it's mostly over.

the goal here is actual response and feedback, not just effort. if you have no response, shift where you're fishing. if the schools you are contacting should have made sense before limits and portal -- but aren't -- adjust upwards.

this is roughly equivalent to a ~ 4:24 when I was in high school 20 years ago with crap shoes and trash nutrition science. Lots of boys running low 4:20s weren't hearing back. Just have to deal with it I guess.

aspirational suggestions do a spring senior zero good. he's about out of time to produce new and improved times. or to approach coaches saying i think i can go 5 seconds faster so i will reach for your school. coaches want to see banked times they can verify online. he needs to be contacting schools who recruit people with his actual times now. or to quickly find new schools interested in his current self. last thing someone getting shut out needs is a continued hopeful approach where he rings up coaches where he is 5-10 seconds slow and tells them he has a few weeks left in college.

this is not how recruitment works.

few weeks left in HS i mean

First off, you should grow up and realize it's not all about "D1". Second, grades?

Exactly. Never understood what the obsession about going D1 was all about. I promise there are literal hundreds of D2, D3, or JC schools that would love to have you. Expand your horizon a bit. Forget about D1

This sucks, but coaches are preparing for their roster limits to get cut in half in some situations. This means D1 programs are going from recruiting a few 4:10-4:20 type kids per year to maybe recruiting 1-2 freshmen and looking for transfers who may be running in the 4:05-4:10 range that are about to get dropped by better teams. Where 4:15 could guarantee to get you onto basically any non top 10 team in past years it may be the bare minimum to get recruited by a mid-major this year.

4:15 with super spikes is like a 4:20

“4:20’s not fast for a high school mile, it’s just not fast”