what's the most difficult (or slowest) high school xc course

anybody ever run at St. Lawrence Seminary in Wisconsin? It's got a big hill that they call Big Bertha that you have to go up twice. I set the record there in 2006 with 16:40. Ran 15:45 in the same year. Not sure what the record is these days.

Yeah, he ran 15:50 something at Bull Run invite the year haile broke it at states. So the record stood for all of a month.

Ummm? wrote:

Bazell ran under 16 at Hereford? What year? I thought Haile was the only one to ever do it. But yeah, Centrowitz only ran 16 flat on the course. Pretty brutal.

brogert=braggart?

Holmdel is tough but not absurd. It's definitely a course that will tire you out, but it's generally got good footing and the whole last mile is downhill.

sub2half wrote:

How do you guys think holmdel (Holmdel, NJ) compares to these courses?

(it's the hardest course i've ever ran so I'm just wondering.)

Hawaii Prep Academy. 3 miles and the record is 16:45 which was run by state xc and track (1:51 800) champion Joey Bunch. He went on to be in USC's top 5 800 guys of all time.

Belmont Plataea in Philly

You are legit if you can break 17 and an absolute stud if you can break 16.

charlevoix michigan, their home invite used to be at the coaches house which was crazy hard, hills and mud pits, the main mud pit had a hill directly after it and people used the trees to help themselves up because it got so muddy, ryan shay had the course record at 1700...

How about the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids, WI? Somewhat of a demanding terrain if you ask me. Many guys who go sub-16:00 for 5k run 16:25 or slower at this course.

Course record: 14:54 Chris Solinsky

Other top performances:

Chris Solinsky 11 Stevens Point 15:07 2001

Derek Storkel 12 Tomah 15:26 2008

Chris Rombough 11 New London 15:27 2003

Chris Solinsky 10 Stevens Point 15:32 2000

Phil Downs 10 Madison Memorial 15:32 1989

Elliot Krause 12 Appleton North 15:37 2007

Brett Kelly 12 Madison West 15:37 2008

Gabe Jennings 12 Madison East 15:38 1996

Dustin Fier 11 Hudson 15:39 2001

Matt Esche 12 Waukesha West 15:39 2000

Dan Sutton 12 West Bend East 15:40 1998

Hereford hands down. Course sucks. Runs 1:30 to 2:00 slower than your typical flat 3 mile.

I have run both Hereford and Elkins, WV. Elkins is tough hill in the beginning is steep, but only about 15 secs of the course. What makes Elkins hard is the weather. The stream crossing become epic if it has been raining, other than that you go up the hill do some flat loops and come down and do flat loops.

Hereford is hard not only because of the dip, but all of the sharp turns, and uneven running.

Hereford HS definately gets a huge home course advantage for the state meet.

another one wrote:

Sunken Meadow State Park. Got to be one of the hardest, if not the hardest course in NYS. Don't know the course record, but this is one tough course.

John Gregorek has the boys record - 15:32.3; set way back in 1977, which was the 1st year of the 5k course.

Lars Anderson Park- Brookline, MA. Has produced really good runners, Jon Riley in particular. Brookline has gotten really good bc of training here. very tough and extremely hilly. And hairpin turns too.

Belmont is not hard enough to be in this thread.

I will second Larz Anderson park. Sub 16 there is a very good time, and it is only about 2.8. Barnicle never broke 15:30 there I believe.

TWO:

1) Steens Mountain Running Camp; cross canyon challenge. Maybe 5K probably more when you get lost. No path, snow bank, barbed wire, cliffs, bees, descent into a canyon, creek crossing, hellacious climb out of the canyon. Winning times in the mid 20s for boys,mid 30s for girls

2) Trask Mountain Challenge, McMinnville,OR

Another vote for Hereford here, I remember the first time I ran there, just seeing the mats wrapped around the tree's at the bottom of the dip was intimidating. I also remember state's in (97 I think) and watching a kid from Gaithersburg HS go right into the ravine after going down the dip too fast.

Hereford in Maryland. Period.

Derryfield Park, Manchester, NH

Site of the Manchester Invitational and class meets

Course record is 15:18 by Ben True, 5th at Footlocker Nationals that year (2003)

The course isn't as slow as some of the aforementioned courses, but it is still very very difficult, there is a climb up a local ski hill that is nearly half a mile long. People very rarely run under 15:30.

touche! Lol thats good. To be honest, the record is nothing to sneeze at. The course is run exclusively by Division 3 (small) schools. I didn't mean to brag. I only mention it because it honestly is the hardest course I've ever run on. I am curious if anyone else has ever run it.