D3 team with how many sub 15's?

D1 is the same.

Wartburg dudes stay ready for the 5k at Grand Slam Track.

This was really cool thanks for posting this. I have a lot of trouble finding race results pre 2005 so to see actual rankings is awesome.

Look, if you aren't currently involved in the sport / paying attention to what is happening with times these days then please don't try to comment on what this means. comparing today to 2001 is moronic and totally irrelevant.

1462 men in the NCAA have already broken 15:00 this season (source: ). 231 in d3 alone with a lot of season left.

athletic.net

Track & Field and Cross Country Statistics

Rankings for middle school, high school, and college athletes. Compare yourself against athletes in your district, your state, or the nation.

Link:www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/ranking...

I'm sorry but being in the top 1500 18-23 year olds in the country is not that impressive.

I'm an alum, like others have guessed, it is a mixture of the coaching, training, and roster limits, but the biggest part is culture. I wanted to get my runs in because I wanted to improve, but I always ran no matter the motivation level, because that was expected and I knew 20-30 other guys were too. You'll notice that most d3 schools that are good have a revolving door on varsity in XC (as in the top 7 changes constantly) because everyone is bought in and wants the team to do cool things. Coach Chapman is insane, yet he gets it.

They were 2nd in XC. At least acknowledge that they are very good for D3.

This is an odd thread. Wartburg is obviously way better than the MAJORITY of d1 programs. This is not even an argument. Just look up tfrrs data. If peeps want to get amped about Stanford and NAU, that's cool, but this ain't that. Good job, D3 guys, for having great depth without internationals, scholarships, or NIL.

As someone who is from Iowa, I can tell you that is incredibly easy to convince small town Iowans to go to a college only athletics matter and academics are secondary. Very very easy for Wartburg to recruit

my response on this would be, some conferences let you go unlimited, and some you can do whatever regular season but conference make you pick a squad, or the schools involved constrain themselves by roster limits. to me the fewer limits you have, you can run your program more like a "BYU," bring in a bunch of lottery tickets, see what happens. i don't buy NYU or williams have less budget -- or at least resources -- than wartburg or PP. but NYU and williams run it one way and PP/wartburg the other, and the results arguably speak for themselves.

ditto the WIACs.

but, yeah, for some conference years with longer trips it was a selection. others everyone went. for soccer it was 25 home or nearby, 18 for road trips.

my argument would be if you want to be more competitive or attractive to kids who don't know where they end up in your universe, or if they even make your team, you don't have roster limits. the d3 school sizes naturally limit who even cares to show up. if you're not sure i'd advise PP/wartburg every time. you will make the team. you will see meets and conference.

now, postseason is different. then you're down to a select 10. my argument is TF you might get away with small and picky, as what matters for conference or nationals is not bulk semi-success, it's having that "one kid" who is excellent. that "one kid" is both your chance at saying you have someone at nationals and at accumulating points quickly at conference or nationals for TF.

but XC i think a sheer number of bodies increases your lottery tickets to find good kids and also lets you rotate who appears at what. a picky short roster team is more dependent on picking the right kids under their limit, not getting injuries, and kids handling having to do 3 serious meets in a row.

to me you see where the snooty short roster teams come back in TF because they only have to get "one right." that one kid would only be one scorer in XC. in TF they are an island potentially worth 10 pts x some races.

again, i think what wartburg does is more in the spirit of d3. we pay a lot for school. being liberal with the rosters perhaps should be reflecting that cost. you still have to cash in the lottery tickets.

i mean, i was recruited by one of their competition, got in, tossed them on finances. but i think everyone in that conference is fairly free with rosters, and yet one stands out. so they are doing something right.

kind of like my college and a few conference neighbors are in theory recruiting the same pool, and we sit where we sit. if a neighbor school with similar admissions demands has a constantly better team.......

I disagree. Wartburg ain't cheap and there are A LOT of cheaper options in the state. Wartburg men weren't very good until 2018. Culture is everything.

Average price paid is $23K. What are the cheaper options?

That doesn’t include room and board 💀

I know that he recruits because Chapman was literally my coach in college, I ran at Aurora University and he recruited me from California. During my time at AU many of our top male distance runners were from California. We also had numerous sprinters from Florida. If you think a bunch of Californians and Floridians are just randomly going to a Midwest D3 with very little notoriety you are out of your mind.

He recruits his butt off at Wartburg, you can see this based on the roster composition and sheer numbers. This isn't some large state school that just gets a bunch of students attending, at small non-academically inclined D3s programs coaches are basically defacto admissions counselors in addition to their coaching responsibilities. I would also know this because I have coached at the D3 level and recruiting was easily the most time consuming aspect of the job.

Yes it does.

Why would a sprinter from Florida or California go to Wartburg? I'm not sure I understand why.

Wartburg has been a D3 power for over 20 years. In the 2000’s they had the individual national champion in both men’s and women’s XC 2 years in a row. The current coach is great, but Steve Johnson is responsible for building that program since the late 90’s.

Everyone in the area knows Wartburg try’s to bring in recruiting classes of 20+ every-year and just throws those kids in the blender. For every sub 15 guy there is 12 failed ones to fall through that program.

if it’s good coaching or not is not up to me to decide. But their division respective depth is nothing new

20+ guys sub 15. Your math says they has about 250 guys.