I am currently a Freshman in College and want to try to walk on to my D1 XC/track team as a Sophomore. I don't know anyone who has done this and wanted to know if it is still worth it. Assuming I am fast enough would I be accepted by the team? How would a D1 coach react to this? I realize I would most likely be slower than much of the team but would a coach even put me in a race?
I walked on as a sophomore. I was very lucky to walk on.
From my experience, it's worth it!
For your other questions, I think it depends on you, the team, and coach.
How long have you been running? Did you just start in college, or did you run in HS too? How slow is too slow?
I had a coach that gave me a chance and I walked on Sophomore year but then I spent the whole year hurt and ran like crap, then got cut from the team by the head coach. So if you're totally new to running, like I was, I'd take the time to make sure your body can handle that level of training before you walk on.
But it's not that unusual and just talk to the coach about long-term development. They might not put you in any important races the first year, but a good coach will be thinking about what you can do senior year. The distance coach who gave me a shot was thinking about that.
Good luck.
Most D1 coaches have walk on stds. Typically 4:20 / 9:20. Maybe faster or slower depending on how competitive the school is. Additionally, some schools have time trials, but they are not as common and the standards are all over the place.
You might encounter more resistance than Freshman simply because the coach ultimately wants athletes that can score at conf, regionals, ncaas. So, they're typically more willing to give Freshman more leeway because they have more time to develop (and they're evaluating them based on high school times, so there is an assumption that, with high volume and intensity training, that there is significant room for improvement).
Look at it this way--what if you wanted to walk on as a Senior? You better be running times that would score points immediately or the Coach shouldn't give you a spot.
So, my advice would be to talk to the coach, know the standard and beat the standard by some significant margin. Better advice would be to know what it takes to score points at conf, regionals, ncaas. Work toward that as a goal. If you don't think you can reach it by Junior year, run club.
Yeah I Ive run 4 years of XC and 2 years of track but only took it seriously my senior year. heard the team has to typically run in the 4:25/9:30s range to make the team but like you said I may have to run faster. My HS times are 4:37/9:54 but was hurt for 2 weeks in the middle of the season and am close to those times right now.
Letsdoit!!! wrote:
I walked on as a sophomore. I was very lucky to walk on.
From my experience, it's worth it!
For your other questions, I think it depends on you, the team, and coach.
I did it--no regrets. Maybe it depends on the coach but mine was happy to have someone new to throw into the mix.