What is the fastest High School Cross Country time ever (legit courses)?

Funny, after I read the title and before I read your post, the same thought came to my mind. I would bet on Dathan. That race was out of this world. He really was the best high school XC runner ever in the US.

That's the fastest I know of.

I had my kids do a 3K time trial on a portion of our home course at the beginning of this season. Our top guys almost broke 10:00. That's way faster than Dathan's time!

Comparing cross country times is useless.

speedo wrote:

Comparing cross country times is useless.

not completely.

also, dathan won that race by like a minute and a half...

fuser wrote:

speedo wrote:

Comparing cross country times is useless.

not completely.

also, dathan won that race by like a minute and a half...

how was the comp if you feeel meee

how was the comp if you feeel meee

Tim Moore was second or third. He won foot locker the following year. So, pretty good, if you feel me.

well, you could start by making a list of some of the all-time fast runs by good kids on "known" courses. Maybe change this thread to all-time great performances instead of just fastest times.

You could start with ...

Virgin 13:50.6 3M Detweiler Pk State Meet 1973

Ritz 14:10 5k MI State Meet MIS course 2000

Rosa 14:56 5k NJ Holmdel MOC 2009

cocakula wrote:

Funny, after I read the title and before I read your post, the same thought came to my mind. I would bet on Dathan. That race was out of this world. He really was the best high school XC runner ever in the US.

Alan Scharsu ran 9:15.7 in 1975.

That is almost 5 minutes faster than Ritz!!

cocakula wrote:

Funny, after I read the title and before I read your post, the same thought came to my mind. I would bet on Dathan. That race was out of this world. He really was the best high school XC runner ever in the US.

Lingren would have cleaned his clock at his fitness level in high school -- no way Dathan is beating the Russians in the 10,000, etc. He ran great times are meets that were important, not high school meets that were important.

I will say that Dathan and Tegenkamp were a pretty good duo at the World Junior XC that year, though.

Chad Hall 14:00 Woodbridge

Cathy Shiro (NH) 16:46 @ VCP/

No one has been remotely close in 35 yrs

Lindgren is indeed the best high school cross country runner ever. I am not sure how to describe him. Clearly uniquely talented, but also with an incredible capacity to train maniacally.

After him, it is Ritzenhein and Virgin (not sure which order).

Under 10:00 minutes several times on the old Derby HS course in Connecticut.

As previously stated comparing Cross country times is (for the most part) useless.

One of the most impressive performances that I remember was Alan Webb running 14:36 at Hagan Stone Park, in NC. It's a fast time period, but that is probably worth 14:05-14:15 at McAlpine, maybe better. He won by like a minute and a half too.

Do you mean Boyd Conservation Park north of Toronto? Can you say more about this?

skaggs wrote:

Chad Hall 14:00 Woodbridge

I saw Webb run 13:57 at Burke Lake in Virginia. It is short of 3 miles, but his time is so much faster than other great high school runners, including Sharif Karie and Jim Hill, that it merits mention. The fact that Ritz beat Webb soundly that year at the FL championships underscores just how good of a high school XC runner Ritz was.

way back when wrote:

I saw Webb run 13:57 at Burke Lake in Virginia. It is short of 3 miles, but his time is so much faster than other great high school runners, including Sharif Karie and Jim Hill, that it merits mention. The fact that Ritz beat Webb soundly that year at the FL championships underscores just how good of a high school XC runner Ritz was.

Ritz was good, but in my opinion it just wasn't Webb's day at footlocker nationals. Maybe Ritz would still have won if Webb had been firing on all cylinders, but I think it would have been closer.