My son was a recruited distance runner but never did much with the 800. A younger teammate who is potentially interested in schools like the Ivys, Duke, etc was asking us what a good 800 time would be for a recruit. This kid has a mid 1:54 best which is good around here but doesn't strike me as really that impressive. His 400 is 50 and 1600 4:35. But he considers 800 his best event. What is an 800 time that would get you attention at these schools? 1:51? Thanks.
From personal experience: An open sub 156 got attention from a lot of the ivies (not all of them). 154 is good and a 153-152 would put him over the top. Of course the coach would be much more likely to talk with admissions to help this runner get in. His willingness to help is directly correlated with his times.
I know a couple mid 1:54 guys who got recruited by Ivies. He should be fine.
Ok thanks. He may be in better shape than I thought. I appreciate the input.
1:54 isn't enough if his academics are way off though. He'd still need to be at least around the 25th percentile of SATs/grades.
For an under 10%er, sub 1:52 might help. Maybe.
As an aside, if you want to get into an Ivy with poor academics, play ice hockey.
Georgetown has taken some guys recently in the 1:54 range--they might be interested--probably also like the ivies would also depend on the academics for a kid with the times in the range you are representing
What grade is he in?
1:51 is already good enough to score points at heps! More than good enough. 1:54 is almost definitely good enough for some ivies.
Mention the 400m as well
If the 50 is in an open 400m he should get down to at least that time + 5 x 2 for his 800m whilst at college
Thanks all. He's just finished his jr year. All the times mentioned are open races and he's run them a few times, so he's been pretty consistent. As far as I know he has top grades. We'd advised him to take SAT as a jr for recruiting but I'm not sure if he did or not. My kid has just gone through all this, filling out online recruiting forms, NCAA stuff etc so we'd like to give him a hand. Thanks for the Georgetown tip. That might actually be a very good fit for this young man.
ukathleticscoach wrote:
Mention the 400m as well
If the 50 is in an open 400m he should get down to at least that time + 5 x 2 for his 800m whilst at college
You mean to tell me there is a formula to predict how fast people can run in the future? This is better than anything that Einstein guy could have come up with.