Elite Runners who were Mediocre in High School

Where is your proof that all elites were running in the 14s as juniors?

I guess more than in the 14's I guess I mean they were all going to Footlocker and winning state championships ... I'm trying to find out if there are any that were just all state or didn't make footlocker nationals

Brian sell, never broke 10 in high school

Matt Elliott

Brian Sell

Eric Jenkins

Just to name a few...

Dan Lincoln, Christian Soratos

Not an elite, by any means, but my HS coach's husband didn't break 5 for the mile or 17 for the 5K in high school, but walked onto his school's track team, after training independently for over a year, in his sophomore year and became a D1 all-american xc runner in his senior year. I think his 5K PR is like really low 14's (I want to say 14:02, but I'm not positive) at any rate, anything can happen.

http://imgur.com/gallery/uMNAEeX

oneoff wrote:

I guess more than in the 14's I guess I mean they were all going to Footlocker and winning state championships ... I'm trying to find out if there are any that were just all state or didn't make footlocker nationals

OK, so where is your proof that they were all going to footlocker and winning state championships? Seems like you are just making things up.

Pat Porter

Ummmm..ever heard of Jordan Has....nevermind

Haile Gebreselassie aka GOAT

Riley Masters, didn't break 2 in the 800 'till his sophomore year in college. Ran, 1:54 in a small indoor meet a week before running 3:59 in the mile. I think he ran a 4:14ish mile in highschool, but I don't think he ever broke 16 in a 5k.

Patrick Smyth never qualified for Footlocker

Dick Buerkle

The Original OP wrote:

Matt Elliott

Brian Sell

Eric Jenkins

Just to name a few...

Eric was not mediocre in high school.

He won the state meet in XC his senior year and broke the course record. He also won the state meet in the 1600 running 4:15. He did this on something like 30 miles per week his senior year. Prior to this, he was running even less.

Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Steve Scott.

douglas burke wrote:

Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Steve Scott.

The same Steve Scott who ran 1:52 in HS?

Bro Riley Masters also went sub 4 his sophomore year. Just because he never ran open 800's doesn't mean he wasn't fast as shit

Few Namer wrote:

Dan Lincoln, Christian Soratos

Dan Lincoln was a HUGE natural talent. Because he grew up in Arkansas and earned a full-ride ACADEMIC scholarship to U of Ark, people assume he was somehow a 4:40 miler.

He only ran XC two seasons in HS and won State Meet his second season. He only ran track one season but ran 4:16 at the Texas Relays FTW, and then won the 1600, 3200 and anchored the winning 3200mR team at State Meet.

If you think that a 4-time State Champion running 4:16 is "mediocre" then that is OK, but I count that as HUGE talent.

He won 4 NCAA titles. 3 in the Steeple and 1 in the 10k.

His story is VERY MUCH like Mark Nenow's. Mark was a wrestler, and went out for XC as a senior at the request of his friends. TWO months later he was Minnesota State Champion. In the spring he won the Mile/2mile double and had run 4:18y/9:17y. Just 30 months later he had run 28:46 in college.

Mark ran under 28:00 TEN times and under-28:30 EIGHTEEN times in life. He placed 3rd in the WR race of Mamede in 1984, and won Brussels in 1986 for an AR of 27:20.56. That record stood for 15 years.

I believe he ranked #1 in the world in 1986, or was 2nd to Aouita. Either way he was a HUGE talent.

douglas burke wrote:

Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Steve Scott.

Some people would disagree (from his wiki page):

"In his senior year, Scott became the top runner on the cross country team and improved his track times to 1:52 in the 800 and 4:15 in the mile. He finished fourth in the CIF California State Meet in the 880 yards[5] and drew several college scholarship offers. He liked coach Len Miller and joined him at the University of California, Irvine in the fall of 1974."

What do you have to run to rise above "mediocre"? Do you need a top-10 all-time type race like 1:48?