Southeastern Conference CC and Distance Track

Running those times, you could easily run for one of the schools mentioned, imo. But you should go to Florida :)

Look at Auburn, Coach Watson is a good guy and you would certainly be able to make an impact there.

tradition is most important.

Believe me.

Go to Arkansas or Tennessee, at any other SEC school your sport (CC) will be a joke.

What? Many schools in the SEC take CC serious. Try Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee. How can you not include the others when talking about SEC CC?

kentucky wont be a popular choice on here because they dont have the tradition of some of the other schools in the conference, but if your interested definitely pursue that interest. john mortimer was just hired as the new distance coach- great guy, runner, and coach- send him an email

jmortiii@gmail.com

and let him know youre interested. the program has had a couple down years but they are getting serious about bringing in high quality distance runners to build the program back to what it once was. uk has a great indoor track, a new outdoor track that should be done by 09, and is in a nice big town/ mall city if thats what youre looking for.

this is about all i know about uk, and no im not biased- i do not attend and have never attended uk or any other sec school. from what i see alabama is mostly africans, tennessee is a consistently a solid program as is florida. i would not recommend going anywhere in the sec other than uk, tenn, uf, and obviously arkansas- ol problem there is how far down you will probably be on the depth chart at first. and i know absolutely nothing about auburn.

ML wrote:

tradition is most important.

Believe me.

Go to Arkansas or Tennessee, at any other SEC school your sport (CC) will be a joke.

Just on that statement alone, every Bama and LSU alum who reads this will do everything in their power to make their teams better, then Auburn will do everything in its power to make it's team better, etc etc all the way down the line.

You are not biased but you link Mort's email? No bias there. UK gets thrashed by Arkansas, Bama, Tenn, Florida, Georgia, Miss. State, on the regular. Why would you think that Mortimer would make a difference? They brought Pat Tyson in and he did nothing. Who are you to recommend where to go in the SEC? You did not go to an SEC school. You are either John Mortimer or his best friend.......

This is John Mortimer. I did not post the aforementioned message. I rarely post on this message board, but when I do it is under my user name: "MORT". Furthermore, to speak to a high school prospect via a chat room or message board would be an NCAA violation.

MORT

john mortimer

You could always go to Ole Miss and be out-trained by national champion Barnabas Kirui.. he has owned every distance runner in the SEC over and over and the fun doesn't stop because he'll be just a sophomore in CC... might see him in the olympics next summer **might**.. he's got a long way to go, but god he has so much potential. And ya know, the great thing about it is he shows up to compete when it matters... he'll do enough to make it through the preliminaries but he shows up on the big day.

Alot of people know bout him around Oxford... he wont shut up about how much he loves the people around here at Ole Miss... our team is pretty fond of him.. a likeable guy since he arrived though. I always say we're pretty lucky for him to come here... but he's always had alot of support.

From personal experience (5 years here) I would like to let yall know if u care that I've completely enjoyed running at an SEC school I'm sure it is quite similar at other places, but I know at Ole Miss I felt welcome on the team from day 1 and I was supported the whole way by the team and coaching staff. I improved enough to where I was competitive in the SEC because of what I did while I was here, but also because most of my friends were my teammates, and my coach never gave up on me. I dont know about some of these other programs like Arkansas or Tennessee or wherever... but I do know that we have a closely knit, supportive group out here. I honestly dont give a damn if you decide to come here or somewhere else, but I cant say enough about how much ive enjoyed being an athlete... i hope all of you stay committed all the way through.

And before somebody says it... my team has placed no higher than 8th in Cross Country at SEC's the past decade or so. Our "reputation" is nothing to speak of, so lets not go there. As for track it hasnt been until this year since we did really well (barny scored 30 pts for god's sake).

We have guys (2 other kenyans and a muzungo) running more than 120/week... so we've got some potential for the future... but i'm not very concerned about it any more cuz im done.

Some tips if u care,

It's possible to do well in the SEC no matter what your background is... just depends on your commitment to the sport and the environment you are surrounded with.

Dont get overly concerned with a school's reputation and whatnot... that really doesnt matter unless your after a national championship in my opinion... however I wouldn't recommend going anything but D-1.

SEC is probably the most well respected conference to race in... but there is a lot more pressure on the athletes because the competition is so strong (not necessarily a bad thing tho!) I always felt that I was competing in something important and that I was part of an elite group... and learned some valuable lessons and all that with dealing w/ pressure of doing well etc.

No matter where you go dont ever take your time as an athlete for granted, and dont ever even think about quitting no matter what.. easier that way. However, do yourself a favor and have some fun (with girls), get hammered a few times, whatever... It wont matter so long your priorities are straight. If you do all that you'll definitely succeed (more so than me at least).

Good Luck to everybody starting out in college athletics this fall... it's a brutal experience but hopefully by the end you'll look back on it with pride!

Of course I hate the SEC, but if I were an upcoming frosh, I would go to Florida in a heartbeat. Other SEC schools are not even in the same league as UF.

Great town, tradition, girls, athletic program, school.

Actually, that is why I hate U of Florida.

I would never say this to anyone except on an anonymous message board.

Of course I hate the SEC, but if I were an upcoming frosh, I would go to Florida in a heartbeat. Other SEC schools are not even in the same league as UF.

Great town, tradition, girls, athletic program, school.

Actually, that is why I hate U of Florida.

I would never say this to anyone except on an anonymous message board.

...didn't vanderbilt beat auburn this past year at sec? Looks like a little more effort in the old "up and coming" is needed there!

Then you have to train in the eternally hot, humid, and flat terrain of florida. what could be worse?

Thank you for all of your imput. What happened to Pat Tyson at Kentucky? Does anyone have the Tennessee coach's e-mail? I realize I will have to drop my times pretty significantly(I should be in the 9:10-9:15 range) to earn an athletic scholarship, because with my family's finnacial situation, earining athletic, academic scholarships along with finicial aid- will be the only way I could attend colleges of this coliber. Yes, I am an honor roll student. These are my dream schools so thanks for your help!

I know Kentucky is a great program if it works for you. Theyve got a guy John Richardson who is pretty good. He was a national qualifier in the 1500.

It all depends what your lookin for, but you dont have to go to arkansas just to be good. Just look at the start lists at nationals. You have alot of these guys coming from schools who dont have the aura of an arkansas or texas. Alot of these guys come from random schools that seem to just work for them.

Finals 10k

1 Shadrack Songok JR A&M-CC 28:55.83 10

3 Josh McDougal JR Liberty 28:58.28 6

4 Sean Quigley JR La Salle 28:59.29 5

5 Tim Nelson SR Wisconsin 29:00.75 4

6 Stephen Samoei SR Texas-El Paso 29:08.30 3

7 Jeremy Johnson SR New Mexico 29:09.01 2

8 Josh Rohatinsky SR Brigham Young 29:12.64 1

9 Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott SO Oregon 29:13.43

10 Kevin Chelimo SR Texas Tech 29:13.91

11 Mohamed Khadraoui SO Iona 29:14.15

12 David Kinsella SO Portland 29:15.47

13 Jeff Powers SR Central Michigan 29:19.38

14 Keith Bechtol SR William & Mary 29:20.05

15 Jordan Horn SR Cal State-Fullerton 29:29.48

16 Japheth Ng'ojoy JR Texas-El Paso 29:35.50

17 Payton Batliner SR Colorado 29:40.75

18 John Moore JR Portland 29:50.61

19 Andrew Dumm SR Virginia 29:52.90

20 Ian Burrell JR Georgia 29:56.15

21 Trent Hoerr JR Illinois 30:04.03

22 Antonio Vega SR Minnesota 30:09.49

23 Christian Wagner SO Wisconsin 30:10.93

24 Michael Kilburg JR Portland 30:16.06

25 Brett Gotcher SR Stanford 30:22.48

26 Andrew Middleton SR Texas 31:06.11

===================================================================

Auburn was an up and coming program under Fox, but it seems to have stagnated the past two years. Most of the guys Chris Fox recruited to Auburn have since left I believe. Still a great town to live in and a nice little college. Also, even if you do give up on running, you always have SEC Football.

i agree!!! NOT wrote:

Then you have to train in the eternally hot, humid, and flat terrain of florida. what could be worse?

Yes, It really hurt Frank Shorter and the FTC to train on the roads and trails in the heat. BTW, Gainesville is not all flat, believe me.

Very true, having lived and trained in Gainesville for four years, it is not flat. No, it isn't Boulder, CO, but then not many places are like that. Yes, it is quite hot and humid much of the year...but then you dont have run through snow drifts either....hmmmmm, pretty good trade-off to me!

Tony wrote:

Very true, having lived and trained in Gainesville for four years, it is not flat. No, it isn't Boulder, CO, but then not many places are like that. Yes, it is quite hot and humid much of the year...but then you dont have run through snow drifts either....hmmmmm, pretty good trade-off to me!

I'll take the cold over the hot any day. I can always put on more layers in the cold. There is only so much I can take off in the heat.

Gainsville is a pretty cool town. ALOT of attractive young ladies.