What is considered to be an "AVERAGE" mile time for male D1 runners?

Former D1 miler from a pretty average conference. 4:30 no way - last place every time. It is D1 after all. 4:15 might b slightly above average, but that is taking into account all the posers who are running 4:20 to 4:25 and are still pr'ng. I'd put it between 4:15 and 4:20, but we always ran the 1500 so hard to say. Bottom line in my experience is that if you could not go 4:10 to 4:15 pace in a real race, you would look very, very average or below.

So a 4:30 mile in high school is average?

D2/3: I ran a lot of post-collegiate D2 meets and 4:30-35 (4:10-15 1500) puts you in the thick of it, 4:15-18 wins it.

What type of even average D1 runner would have trouble beating average hs kids? The type that ran 4:40 in hs, walked on and the coach took sympathy on b/c he was a kind, hard working kid maybe. But virtually all D1 runners who were recruited and have D1 experience will own average HS kids. It's not even close. D1 is a whole other level that a lot of successful, much less average, high schoolers can't handle.

Not so fast budday wrote:

I am going to guess around 4:25 there are way more kids who are on d1 teams that run between 4:30 and 4:40 than kids who are in the top tiers. You'll be surprised how many d1 athletes would have a hard time beating average high schoolers. Especially in the North East.

I think it is important only to consider "middle distance" runners, not 5k-10k guys.

For example I go to a middle tier D1 school and the average of our XC team is probably around 4:20 but if you throw out the guys who don't run 800/1500 as their main events then it is closer to 4:15-4:20. Probably around 4:17ish. I would say my school is an "average" D1 team. So yea 4:15-4:20

I'm getting bummed out reading this post. I ran 4:28 in HS and 4:07 1500m (1:53.8 800m) in college at a D2 school. It sounds like I could've "hung" on a D1 team. Too bad I only got recruited from one D2 team.

everybody calculate the average for your team.

Mines around 4:16ish

From200mTo8k wrote:

I'm getting bummed out reading this post. I ran 4:28 in HS and 4:07 1500m (1:53.8 800m) in college at a D2 school. It sounds like I could've "hung" on a D1 team. Too bad I only got recruited from one D2 team.

No doubt you could've hung @ the 800 @ least. But I always wondered how things would've gone if I'd gone D2 and been a bigger fish in a smaller pond rather than having my ass handed to me every other week by guys who could run 3:4x without much effort. So I guess my point is that the grass is always greener. Enjoy the time you have and make as much noise as possible regardless of the level @ which you're competing.

This is an interesting thread, because by definition, the average of all D1 runners in probably around 4:20 or so.........as many have already pointed out. On the other hand though, if you're a 4:10-13 type D1 guy, you're not doing much winning, if any at all. So if you're not winning any races, can you really be called "good". I'm a great example of this. I was a 3:48(1500) guy in college, and I never won a single race. It would be hard to call me anything better than "average". Which is what I tell people I was when they find out I was a 4:05ish miler and think I'm a world beater.

totally depends on who you are counting. I ran on a good d1 team, but the coach allowed a lot of slow guys to kind of be on the team. I mean there were a few guys who'd have a hard time hitting 4:30.

Probably more worth while to talk about the average PR of guys who get to compete in the conference championships across each division. You also have to specify if you mean only guys who focus on the mile, or everyone who runs 800m - 10k.

I focused on the 3k/5k, and ran a 3:54 1500m a couple times. I think on my team that made me right about average if you consider guys who ran at conference in any distance event.

Hey everybody

This thread got me thinking and I started another thread that is similar-ish

I'm wondering what do I need to run as a high school junior to be recruited by "big" D-1 school? I specialize in the 3200m.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4381911

I ran on a D-1 team - recall running an indoor meet with the flu. Somehow I managed to struggle through a mile in ~4:40, grabbed my sweats, went to the van and slept until the meet was over. Anyhow, despite slogging through a 4:40, there were a few people behind me.

4:30? No way. D1 teams usually have one or two walk-on quality runners who run that. Everyone else is faster. I've run on both a top tier D1 team and a more middle of the pack D1 team (about in the middle of placing at conference and regionals). On the good D1 team, our crappy guys who never even contributed were low 4:18-4:23. In this conference a 3:52 1500m wouldn't even get you to the finals at conference. At the other school I ran for, every one of our top five xc guys could run under 4:20 (one was a long distance specialist and is slow at the mile), and four of them can run under 4:15.

For D1, for guys who actually race the mile (as in not 10k specialists), I would say 4:15-4:20 is about average, and you're not going to impress anyone with those times. You need to be running <4:10 to really be competitive. Consider this: a 4:00 mile might not even get you to nationals! 4:15 ain't shit.

We must remember only about 350 USA runners have been under 4 flat(some only after college) and there are about 350 D-1 schools. You have to think the top guy in each of the D-1 schools might average out as 4:06 ish the second guy at 4:10 and 3rd 4:15. Average team might carry 6 guys they would consider entering in a 4xmile relay. To break into the top 20 AllTime college 4XMile your team woud heve to run 16:16 or so and 16:25 to be in the top 100 teams all time. ( UArkansas about a dozen and a half of those sub 16:25s)

The mentions of 4:20-4:25 seem to be on solid ground.

Interesting question, on my D3 team the average time (14 times reporting) is a 4:15 1500m, which converts to about a 4:34 1600m.

WiT shoots Old Betsy wrote:

...

You have a goodly amount of Kentucky windage involved in those average times old man.

I figured the average for the Ivy League. All 8 rosters, dad blammit. There were 221 runners with available 1,500, 1,600 or mile times. Seeing that people usually peak better in outdoor track when the 1,500 is run, I used a converted time (multiply by 1.08) if it was better than the guy's actual mile time, figuring that's a better indicator of how good the runner really is at his best.

Some people who had a 1,500 or mile time were obviously recruited as 400/800 guys or as long distance guys and are not competitive in the mile at the college level, so their best time was still a 1,600 from high school or was a very crappy 1,500 or mile when compared to their times at their specialty distances. I multiplied a 1,600 time by 1.006 to get an equivalent mile. There were quite a lot of 4:20 to 4:27 times in there (and a handful over 4:30), mostly from longer distance guys who hardly ever run the 1,500 or mile except in dinky meets or from guys who permanently moved up in distance and haven't once run it again after high school.

It's not a perfect indicator of how good the average guy is at the mile, because so many of the guys in the 4:20s could be faster if they ran it enough. Also the 1,500 to mile conversion isn't a guarantee. But I think this data comes pretty close to what we're trying to figure out.

And the average personal best mile (or converted) time for male runners currently on an Ivy League roster is ... drum roll, please ... 4:17.63.

Thank you for taking the time. I think your choice of The Ivy League is great and pretty spot on for average D1 .

What kind of average are we talking about? Some people (myself included) tend to label anything that is not "elite" as "average". But I'm going to assume we're talking about a middle of the road college miler. This is kind of interesting... on tfrrs I looked at last year's indoor performance list and found the median mile time of every D1 conference listed. This doesn't fully answer the question but it should at least shed some light. I put the number of competitors in parentheses.

Just looking at it it seems that 4:14-4:15 would be a "middle of the road" time in a d1 power conference. Second tier d1 might be looking at something like 4:25-26.

Acc – 4:15.31 (102)

America east – 4:27.36 (83)

Atlantic sun – 4:29.64 (40)

Big 12 – 4:15.41 (86)

Big east – 4:16.64 (92)

Big sky – 4:17.13 (39)

Big south – 4:30.28 (52)

Big ten – 4:12.49 (94)

Great west – 4:30.82 (53)

Horizon – 4:25.92 (62)

Ivy – 4:18.36 (130)

Metro atlantic – 4:29.19 (41)

Mets – 4:27.13 (130)

Missouri valley – 4:21.48 (60)

Mountain west – 4:17.92 (57)

Mpsf – 4:10.57 (54)

Nec – 4:30.89 (90)

Ohio valley – 4:27.82 (35)

Patriot – 4:25.24 (89)

Sec – 4:15.93 (62)

Sun belt – 4:29.59 (42)

Summit – 4:29.00 (55)

Wac – 4:20.43 (27)