Whats the Biggest 5k High school improvement you've heard about?

first race 23:59

last race 16:23

25:40 freshman 5k to 25:40 freshman college 8k.

Boys team at our school had a kid go from 28 (his best) as a 9th grader to 18:10 as a senior. Not world class, but a remarkable change physically and mentally for the young man. Wasn't growth, either; just worked very, very hard to get in shape over 4 years.

Jarred Miller at Radford High school went from never running, to a 21 summer 5k, to 16:30 at regions.

kid on my team this year went from 36 as a junior to 18:40 as a senior.

kid form my county supposedly went form a 30ish to a 16:30 at

sunken meadow too

I actually was terrible my freshman year (still am not great, but much improved)...went from 22:30ish freshman year to 17:20ish my sophomore year on the same course. Hit 16:20ish on a tougher course senior year.

Sorry for the inexact times, but it's been awhile :)

first 5k was 30:01, best high school 5k was 18:02

tons of kids drop from 28-30 minute rage down to low 20s in a single year. its not rare at all. its just because kid like that have never trained before.

its much more impressive to hear about someone dropping from a mediocre 19 minute 5k to the 16 range, which i have seen done in a single season.

walkerbob wrote:

tons of kids drop from 28-30 minute rage down to low 20s in a single year. its not rare at all. its just because kid like that have never trained before.

its much more impressive to hear about someone dropping from a mediocre 19 minute 5k to the 16 range, which i have seen done in a single season.

Most of the big drops, whether from 29 to 20 or 19 to 16, are due in large part to a lack of racing experience. Some kids just don'tpush themselves. I would say the rare jumps to good times are not necessarily solely training adaptations, but also mental.

A guy who was a sophomore when I was a senior ran about a 22 min 5k and over a 12 min 3200 meter. At the end of the season he told me he wanted to be good and would do what he needed to get there. I went to his house twice a day, everyday all summer and graudally built up his mileage. His first XC meet the next fall he went 16:41. He ended up running into the mid 9s in the 3200 and getting top 15 at state after one summer of dedicated training.

our home course was 2.8 miles - before everybody went to 5k.

Fr 17:37

SR 14:03

A kid at my high school, they used to turn the clock off on him (he was never under 30 minutes) when he was a freshman and he ended up running a 17:35 as a senior shedding off about 5 minutes every year. He now has been out of high school for 4 years and has did a half ironman and ran the half marathon part in 1:23 and 5k pr of 16:22.

I went 19:32 in my first 5k freshman year (30ish miles a week).

I went 16:10 in my fastest 5k senior year (50ish miles a week).

I went from a 19:30 pr my freshman year to 16:59 pr my sophmore year.

12th grade First race 22:59

12th grade State Finals 17:55

Senior year of college 14:49

12th grade was 1st season ever

9:45 freshman year for 3200

9:27 senior year for 3200

in terms of becoming elite:

beginning of james strang senior year, he was running around 17:30 for the 3 mile and then went on to qualify for footlocker nationals with around a 14:50 5k. that's mainly a result of anemia, but i didn't remember him as much of a standout his junior year or anytime before that.

then went on to win 2 xc national team champs with colorado before transferring to arkansas.

My son was 18:50 his freshman year and 16:46 this year in cross as a sophomore. He is going to increase his mileage this summer and hopefully he can get faster.