Top US pro's who weren't that good in college....

Nick Symmonds was a good D3 guy but nothing predicted what was to come. Drew Windle was a D2 national champ but how many D2 guys go on to make World teams?

Daniel Tapia!

Mustache ride wrote:

Daniel Tapia!

Oh yeah. Wasn't even top 3/4 on his High School cc team. Ran 14:35 in college for 5k. Now his PR's are 14:01, 28:39, 1:03:37, 2:12:28. I think he was top 5 at Boston a couple years back.

Whos that guy with the crazy beard. Will Leer? I think he ran D3 at Pomona Pitzer.

Colby Alexander!!!!

The correct answer is Paul Chelimo

334 wrote:

Colby Alexander!!!!

Winner. Hands down. Guys like Symmonds, Windle, Chelimo were college studs. National champs in their divisions. Alexander was injured at Oregon for 5 years. We now know the talent was always there based on what he's accomplished since graduating, but in college he never even qualified for an NCAA meet as an individual. He scored like 2 points in 5 years in the PAC-12 champs.

One year after graduating from Oregon he went 3:34. Won Tracktown Summer Series vs a field better than the US final. Other than Centro, I think he's beaten every other miler in America. He's in the hunt in every race he runs, no matter how studded the field is. And he almost did beat Centro in last year's 5th Ave Mile. Ran 3:50!! T&F News ranked him as a top 5 miler last year and he was only a couple tenths from being the country's fastest 1500 guy for 2016. He's had more than a few WTF moments since college.....

Alexander's legit. So are all the others mentioned. How bout CRAIG LEON? He was not a player on the Division 1 level at Ohio University. May have qualified for a NCAA D1 XC Meet once but as for making any kind of an impact, nada.

Since moving out to Eugene, he's gone 2:13:53 in the marathon and 1:04:02 for the half. Placed pretty high in some major marathons. Top 10 at Boston, 13th at Chicago, Olympic Trials qualifier and Eugene Marathon Champ.

Eric Avilla. Ran NAIA in college. Did ok but who ever talks about NAIA dudes? Since college, he's made an Olympic Trials 1500 final and run 3:36.

Hey. I may have spoken too soon. This guy may challenge Colby for top honors. Ford Palmer. Played football in high school. Didn't run. Took up running in college at Monmouth. Not really a running powerhouse. Ran 4:00 and 3:44 in college but that doesn't get you much these days in D1. But think about it, having never run before and within a few years he was already knocking on the sub 4 door. So he had talent. He hooked up with Coach Gags and NJNY TC after college and now boasts a 3:36 PR for 1500 and he just ran a 3:54 mile this past indoor season. In 2014 he was 5th in the 1500 at the USATF Outdoor Champioships. Not bad for a High School football player!!

Thanks for the update Ford.

Kim Conley was second best on her college team, ending her 8 years of training with a pr in the 1640s.

2 years post collegiate, she had dropped it to 15:10 or so, a very dramatic improvement for somebody who had been training that long.

Since then, she has only improved by a few seconds over the past 5 years.

Ben MF True

Kate MF Grace

Bill Rodgers

Jared Ward

maybe this wrote:

Bill Rodgers

Dick Beardsley

Drew Hunter

Alan Webb

WhamBam wrote:

Hey. I may have spoken too soon. This guy may challenge Colby for top honors. Ford Palmer. Played football in high school. Didn't run. Took up running in college at Monmouth. Not really a running powerhouse. Ran 4:00 and 3:44 in college but that doesn't get you much these days in D1. But think about it, having never run before and within a few years he was already knocking on the sub 4 door. So he had talent. He hooked up with Coach Gags and NJNY TC after college and now boasts a 3:36 PR for 1500 and he just ran a 3:54 mile this past indoor season. In 2014 he was 5th in the 1500 at the USATF Outdoor Champioships. Not bad for a High School football player!!

This is not true..Ford was a solid high school runner