NCAA champs who were not that good in high school.

NCAA championship is a big deal, but it's not the be all.

Doug Padilla was something like 4:17 miler/9:15 2 miler in high school and went on to do some great things: 7:35 3000 m, top 5 or 6 at the 1984 Olympics, etc.

Natosha Rogers

Diego Estrada was a 9:04/4:20/2:03 guy in HS. 7:44/13:15/27:32 now.

Looky Here wrote:

Diego Estrada was a 9:04/4:20/2:03 guy in HS. 7:44/13:15/27:32 now.

Ding! Ding! Ding! This is what we are looking for. Maybe not an NCAA champ but I don't recall any other 4:20 milers in the last 10-20 years doing this.

Monster_cookies wrote:

In other words, Ulrey was a national class high school athlete. I think the OP is looking more for the 425/930 type runner, which is often still good enough to win/compete for a state title in a small state.

Ding ding ding. When there are only 30 or 40 kids running sub 4:10 that is national class and the ideal candidate to win a national championship.

doodles wrote:

Canadians don't have an extra year of high school. That is only in Ontario and it is optional not mandatory, furthermore that would make Cam's enormous improvement only MORE impressive. Learn about the Canadian system before you run your mouth about it...

Since we're on the topic of Canada, why is it that so many more runners come to the U.S. from Canada than from other parts of Europe?

Since we're on the topic... wrote:

doodles wrote:

Canadians don't have an extra year of high school. That is only in Ontario and it is optional not mandatory, furthermore that would make Cam's enormous improvement only MORE impressive. Learn about the Canadian system before you run your mouth about it...

Since we're on the topic of Canada, why is it that so many more runners come to the U.S. from Canada than from other parts of Europe?

Well I would say that one reason is that the Canadian track and field development system post high school is non-existent and non-funded.

Two, its less expensive for US colleges to fly in and recruit Canadiens than Europeans.

Three. Canada always seems to have 19 year old well developed talent from the high school ranks that want to get the F out of Canada and go to school and compete in the NCAA.

I can think of one guy who beat Diego all over the track, Cam Levins, he was a 4:18 miler now a 3:54 miler....

break it up wrote:

Looky Here wrote:

Diego Estrada was a 9:04/4:20/2:03 guy in HS. 7:44/13:15/27:32 now.

Ding! Ding! Ding! This is what we are looking for. Maybe not an NCAA champ but I don't recall any other 4:20 milers in the last 10-20 years doing this.

a 9:04 is a hell of a lot better than a 4:20. that is not what you are looking for.

the OP probably wants somebody who ran a 4:40 mile in HS.

how about Steve Scott (former american record holder in mile). Only ran 4:15? in high school. and Nick Symmonds ran I think 1:53 in high school

Paul McMullen ran only 4:19 in high school (I think). This was when he was a 215 lb. football player as well... Went on to the Olympics in the 1500.

got you all beat:

Bob Schul ran a 4:36 in HS, a 9:52 2 mile in CC and could only manage a 2:04 in the 800.

He is the only american to win 5k gold.

Not Comparable wrote:

doodles wrote:

Cam Levins anyone? 1:59/4:18/9:25 in high school is nothing special at all and he's faster than all the jokers you've named...

Canadians have an extra year of high school, so it isn't really fair to compare Cam's high school numbers to the stats of Americans.

Ummm

break it up wrote:

Going back in the past some runners who were NCAA Champions that were not spectacular high school runners were Frank Shorter (9:30), Henry Marsh (4:19), Terry Brahm (4:14). Aaron Ramirez won NCAA cross in 1986 and I don't think he was faster than 9:15 in high school but I'm not sure.

John Scherer won three NCAA titles in the 1980's and wasn't faster than 9:10 for 3200.

Marsh never won an NCAA title. Scherer's best 3200 was 9:25.5 in 1984.

break it up wrote:

What were Ryan Shay's times in high school on the track? He was an NCAA champion and I don't think he was super fastr in high school and is a more recent name.

Ryan Shay didn't have many fast times, but he was D4 in Michigan and had like 10 state championships. 4 in XC alone, I'm guessing he probably got about 6 more in 4 years of track.

Lisa Koll and Angela Bizarri weren't super studs in HS but both won multiple NCAA titles, and Koll set the 10k NCAA record

fghrunner beat me to it- lisa koll was known in iowa but wasn't blowing anyone away on the state or national level by any means. Went on to ISU and the rest is history.

Also at ISU, not an NCAA champ but was 4th a few years ago- dani stack. Nothing special in HS then truly blossomed.

pig sooooie wrote:

8:08.82 is better than any time Levins has run, and Dan had more NCAA titles.

You might want to wait until Levins is done. He has already finished reasonably well in the Olympics (his senior year in college). I suspect that we will see 13-low or better, 27-low or better, and he actually is more of a racer than a 'runner' (for time).

dkshgfd;ih wrote:

got you all beat:

Bob Schul ran a 4:36 in HS, a 9:52 2 mile in CC and could only manage a 2:04 in the 800.

He is the only american to win 5k gold.

Little bit of context on those marks; it was a long time ago and high school kids did very little mileage and did not know what others were doing.