Walking On At Wisconsin?

I know a guy who asked if he could walk on--he had a 4:17 at the WI state meet--and got told that he'd have to run a 4:13 this upcoming year indoors.

Just to all these people who assume Wisco is so great... Lots of good D1 teams let not so good athletes compete, just don't get to travel. Case in point, University of Portland, I've raced some of their guys, and some of their guys aren't better than 4:15 1500/16:00 5k.

Mean to read ".. who assume Wisco is so great that they probably wouldn't even glance at a 'just' sub 15 guy..."

Doesn't matter how good or how bad a DI team is, some allow walk-ons and some don't, that's a fact.

i hate that wrote:

......... wrote:

They're transfer qualifying times are MUCH stiffer than HS qualifying times....

I've never really understood why they think transfers have to be faster than their HS qualifying times, a fast time is a fast time, right?

i think its a pain to take transfers, as in there is a lot of paperwork, compliance work, etc. so its generally not worth it... this is what i gather atleast.

Your best bet is to contact the coach because nobody on this board knows.

Walk on because the Wisconsin CC groupies are second to none--they look great and they put out if you can break 25:00

i have a friend by the name of luke rucks who never ran a sub 18 5k before he went to madison. he walked on and made the team. but, mind you, he never ran CC and off of 35 mpw he ran a 1.57 800 and wouldve hit 1.55 (at the very least) at state if he hadnt been tripped.

in short, you have a much better shot than he ever did. other guys on the team had been running 15:30 times in highschool. you hit sub 15 and youre in.

i am pretty sure these are wisconsin's transfers standards. they are as follows:

1600m (4:08)

3000m (8:15)

5000m (14:20)

Maybe I'm missing something, but why would anyone want to be a walk on at a team like Wisconsin? Chances are slim you'll be in the top 7, so you train your butt off and never get to race. Whats the point?

Why not go to another school and actually get to participate in a season?

Would a place like wisco (or big state school) take a grad student who had a year of eligibility (XC,indoor outdoor) who had run like 3:50 1:51 and 14:30 the year before? A guy like that is a pretty legit threat to qualify for regionals if he keeps PRing

If you are going to walk on, that is fine and I encourage you if you have the mental discipline to work hard and hang in there. It is important that you show up that 1st day in the best possible shape you can be.

hopesfall wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something, but why would anyone want to be a walk on at a team like Wisconsin? Chances are slim you'll be in the top 7, so you train your butt off and never get to race. Whats the point?

Why not go to another school and actually get to participate in a season?

because he is probably already there (at Wisconson, Madison). He obviously didn't go there to run since he didn't go out his frosh year. He got this dream one night about walking on his soph year and put it on the thread here. He is not that serious and will most likely quit after a month or so. Running is not his top priority (and that's ok), or he might have gone to a smalller school in state (and there are plenty of good ones), where he could have been a 'player'. If running isn't 'priority one' in college, (assuming you are going to go to class and graduate, too), you won't last. It's not a part time hobby you pick up on a whim. I saw many walk-ons, walk on and walk off when the commitment got to be too much for them. On the other hand, I saw some walk ons work their way onto scholarships and become important members of the X-C and track teams, too. It all depends how bad you want it.

It is interesting to look at Lacy. He was a 9:25/3200 in HS and ran 8:18/3000(~8:58/3200), which is a 27-second improvement. Of course, Lacy had three things: 1) he was injured some in HS and hence his HS marks were not all that good relative to his ability; 2) he is a local guy (and state resident); and 3) he is Steve Lacy's son and Steve was a superstar at UW in his day.

JS has had some success with transfers with modest times that just persisted and persisted, both at getting in and at performing. There was a guy from Dartmouth a few years back, IIRC, that ended up running about 29:01 and making NCAAs and doing well at Big Tens, which is a big deal at Wisconsin.

However, one issue might be equity balance because there is sometimes a cost of having another roster guy from a Title IX perspective.

Yes, I'm pretty sure Wisconsin has roster limits to meet Title IX requirements. That limits the coaches' choices, over and above funding issues.

The Title IX issue is where you probably will run into problems - they just are limited with how many people they can have on a roster. And unless you are breaking 1415 you have no chance to run XC or any significant track meets. Therefore the coaches see no reason to accept you as a transfer. I am not trying to discourage you from trying, just laying out the reality because your chances are slim without improvement.

well i would mainly want to do it just because i don't think i'm going to get much better where i am. I'm on a college team already and i don't have anyone to push me to make me better. I wouldn't care really about competing for the team and such just as long as i could train with people who are significantly better than me, and with a coach who is very knowledgeable. I guess any top 10 college team would work, i just threw up wisconsin because of all the recent success they have had.

Recent success.... yea.... Wisco's been one of the best distance teams since forever...