Fast enough to win D3 Nats?

think about what your writing,

If you look at past results, look at where the top freshman has finished. I'd say it's quite rare for a freshman to finish in the top 20, much less the top 5.

i know at least 3 guys who came into a d3 school having ran around a 4:15 in high school. and none of them were even all american until at least their 3rd year, if ever. but i think itd be good to call up some coaches and tell them that you will probably win nats, so they should take you.

No that would not make you a contender for top 5. Off the top of my head I can think off a few kids with faster times than yours that did not even make their own team. Two kids at Williams ran 410 and 415 and a kid at Haverford ran 415. The frosh from NYU ran 418 and he was over 200 at nationals. Waite at TCNJ ran 415 and did not make his team, Streb from Geneso ran 418 and DNS, Halstead was 221 and he ran 913. Im sure there are many many more but you get the picture, simply running 415 guarantees you nothing and it is very very rare that a frosh is in the top 5 for example the top frosh this year was 69th.

Does anyone below 4:20 apply for a D3 school? I'm just asking because I'm completely unaware of the situation, I'm just wondering if I have a shot.

My good friend ran 4:22 in high school at his state meet. He went to a DIII college and ran 24:53 at his regional meet in his first year of college (just this past season). However, at nationals he finished close to last place.

So, 4:22 can translate to a 24:53 on a great day. Use those numbers to see where you would stand. He ran the 24:53 at Lehigh's course, which is faster than most.

ok fast mile

doesn't mean a whole lot for an 8k

what's your best 5k?

how did you place at states xc?

Wow, thanks guys. I knew those results didn't make sense. I saw the winner averaging 5:21 and thought it was very suspicious. thanks for the help.

Looking at times for xc doesn't always give a lot of information. The year that the winner ran 5:20 pace, the course was extremely muddy and very, very slow. The guy went on to do pretty well at the olympic trials marathon this fall, running about the same pace there as he did for that 8k.

Same thing goes for track. For example the indoor mile gets won in 4:12 sometimes, but it is usually off a very slow pace with a fast finish. Running evenly paced, the winner is usually a 4:05 guy.

You need to look at past track performance lists. They will give you an idea of how fast guys run in DIII.

Looking at championship results gives a false impression that DIII guys are slow. My senior year the winner in the 5k went about 14:50, and All-American (top 8) were 14:57 or faster. It was a complete kicker's race, probably b/c 75% of the guys were running their 2nd (or 3rd) race of the weekend.

The leader on that year's performance list was 14:12. He finished 9th (after leading the race for a good portion).

This is all just off the top of my head, so my numbers may be a bit off, but a 4:15 mile (I'm willing to bet that a 4:15 high school "miler" is actually a 4:15 1600m runner, but I'm not going to nit-pick) is about a 3:57-58 1500, right? That just misses the provisional qualifying mark in track. That should put into perspective where you'd fall within the ranks of DIII milers(25-30 people usually hit provisional in any given event in any given year, although that can vary dramatically). I'm also going to assume that you gave your mile time because it's your event, therefore you wouldn't have the same level of success in XC. In conclusion, I'd say that any DIII team would be very excited to have you joining their program but if you ended up top 5 in XC by your 5th year, your career would be considered exceptional.

am I the only person who's noticed he hasn't actually run this time yet? he said "he should be running 4:15 as a senior"

sesert foxx wrote:

think about what your writing,

Irony, thy name is letsrun.

shadow puppet wrote:

am I the only person who's noticed he hasn't actually run this time yet? he said "he should be running 4:15 as a senior"

yeah i noticed that too, i'm gonna guess his PR right now is no faster than 4:22

Let me put it to you this way.

Nick Symmonds was 91st at 2005 cross country nationals. At that time he was a "soon to be" 3:40 1500 runner within the year such as you are a self-appointed 4:15 runner.

In the 2006 swampfest Will Leer was 7th. Later that year during the track season he would run his own 3:40.

4:15 for a FULL mile would not even qualify you for the indoor mile last year nor the year before. I assume you speak of the 1600 since you are in HS and that would probably convert to a 4:17 full indoor mile. However since the nationals provisional time is 4:16 your name would not even appear on the performance list, much less be in the top 18 selected to race at nationals, much less be top 5 in the mile race whose field is a fraction of the size of the national cross country race.

So you see there are people out there that are athletically far superior to the time you have never run and yet they still failed to claim top 5 at the D3 national cross country meet. I am teammates to one of the freshmen named previously who actually ran your projected time and it is true he did not make the top 7. Don't kid yourself, the top tier D3 guys can run their asses off too.

The only way a 4:15 miler out of high school will be top 5 at DIII nats is if that running is better at XC.

Yeah, that Cabrini kid did choke at Nats.

The most likely ways a 4:15 miler our of high school can be top 5 at NCAA

1) That runner continues to improve after high school, gets a good coach with a great team and has a really strong summer/fall.

2) The 4:15 mile was the slowest of all that runner's high school marks and he is just a superior runner.

3) Pops a huge race at Nats and gets lucky.