Best Athletes to not run after high school?

Tyreke Hill

zzzz wrote:

Obea Moore

That's a step above Lukas Verzbicas.

He had the Olympic 400m standard as a high school junior.

High school marks

200m 20.68

400m 45.14

800m 1:49.16

Then ... injuries,trouble getting into the college he wanted, etc.

From his wiki page:

"Moore ended up at Life University, an NAIA college. After a successful and healthy fall training season, he entered the Pomona Pitzer Invitational, a tune up meet before the Mt. SAC Relays. Facing serious competition from people with marks equivalent to Moore's high school junior accomplishments, Moore pulled out of the race at the last minute.

"He couldn't go to the line," recalls then Life University head coach Mark Spino. "If he just was even around, people had such high expectations of him, it was hard for him to start anyplace and very hard for him to have intermediary goals."[1]"

Adding another vote for Lukas Verzbicas.

Sad.

"That's a man who could have been anything"

Slam dunk Obea Moore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obea_Moore

Chelsey Sveinnson

mile/2 miles national champion, footlocker runner up went to stanford and quit the team.

Lubert Lewis from Rome, NY. Section 3 (central NY) record holder in 800 in 1:49 and 400m in 47.82 in 1997. His high school had no track tradition, I'm guessing his coaching was not very advanced, but he had great speed and talent. Probably could easily have gone under 1:45 with proper training. Rumor was he was academically challenged. I believe he went to junior college for a while then dropped out. Such a shame , with proper training and guidance could have gone far.

I think this question was geared more towards generating conversation around athletes who hung up the spikes voluntarily, rather than to injury or burn out.

For me one of the biggest question marks is Arcadia stud Estevan De La Rosa. US Junior Cross Qualifier and top 5 athlete from his class, and never heard from again after HS. I heard that he had trouble with grades, but I'm sure he could have still gone the JC/ Adams State/etc. route.

And speaking of Arcadia standouts, what happened to Phillip Rocha since leaving CU-Boulder? I was expecting/hoping to see him resurface in some way... what is it about Arcadia that sets their athletes up so poorly for post HS success?

Did any of these guys qualify for BOSTON? That’s really all that matters long term. Otherwise who cares

Ayn Ran wrote:

I think this question was geared more towards generating conversation around athletes who hung up the spikes voluntarily, rather than to injury or burn out.

For me one of the biggest question marks is Arcadia stud Estevan De La Rosa. US Junior Cross Qualifier and top 5 athlete from his class, and never heard from again after HS. I heard that he had trouble with grades, but I'm sure he could have still gone the JC/ Adams State/etc. route.

And speaking of Arcadia standouts, what happened to Phillip Rocha since leaving CU-Boulder? I was expecting/hoping to see him resurface in some way... what is it about Arcadia that sets their athletes up so poorly for post HS success?

Last I heard Phillip Rocha was now running for Mt SAC this season. Not sure what happened to Estevan.

Abdirizak Mohamed

Maybe he ran at a community college, but maybe not?

Ayn Ran wrote:

I think this question was geared more towards generating conversation around athletes who hung up the spikes voluntarily, rather than to injury or burn out.

For me one of the biggest question marks is Arcadia stud Estevan De La Rosa. US Junior Cross Qualifier and top 5 athlete from his class, and never heard from again after HS. I heard that he had trouble with grades, but I'm sure he could have still gone the JC/ Adams State/etc. route.

And speaking of Arcadia standouts, what happened to Phillip Rocha since leaving CU-Boulder? I was expecting/hoping to see him resurface in some way... what is it about Arcadia that sets their athletes up so poorly for post HS success?

most of the names on this thread so far at least attempted or were on college team at some point after hs. I agree, De La Rosa came to mind for me also. As far as your other question, it's the same thing that you see from many of the big name programs isn't it? Or a lot of the elite high school athletes? They just don't seem to have as much of an improvement curve. Great Oak, Dana Hills, CBA, North Central, York, et al.

westsouthrunner wrote:

Chelsey Sveinnson

mile/2 miles national champion, footlocker runner up went to stanford and quit the team.

I forgot what happened, but didn't she have repeatedly bad injures (stress fractures?), and so she eventually gave up on XC / Track? No offense to her mother, but I also heard she was the overbearing mother type that pushed her a lot... maybe Chelsey lost her love for the sport because of that as well.

All I know for sure is, she picked up Rugby a few years afterwards and might have also been playing with some club team.

Murad Campbell

Was very entertaining watching the Steve Slattery/Murad Campbell public trash talking. If I recall, Campbell skipped winter track because he wanted to play video games in 1998...then spanked Slattery in the 3200 final in outdoors.

Just looked him up....8:58 as a senior. Won MOC by 25 seconds!

Lebron James

Many of the guy runners mentioned certainly tried running in college but were not successful. For instance Obea Moore and Abdzirak Mohammed both attempted post high school running careers.

For somebody who stopped running I would guess Yung Sung-Leal (sp?). He just stopped running, although he did run a few road races in his later twenties, I think.

most of these are wrong wrote:

Many of the guy runners mentioned certainly tried running in college but were not successful. For instance Obea Moore and Abdzirak Mohammed both attempted post high school running careers.

For somebody who stopped running I would guess Yung Sung-Leal (sp?). He just stopped running, although he did run a few road races in his later twenties, I think.

oh, good one! Ran in the 1420's on the track as a sophomore! he seemed very Ritz like in the way he raced leaving it all out on the course/track, super fun to watch

calicreamin wrote:

most of these are wrong wrote:

Many of the guy runners mentioned certainly tried running in college but were not successful. For instance Obea Moore and Abdzirak Mohammed both attempted post high school running careers.

For somebody who stopped running I would guess Yung Sung-Leal (sp?). He just stopped running, although he did run a few road races in his later twenties, I think.

oh, good one! Ran in the 1420's on the track as a sophomore! he seemed very Ritz like in the way he raced leaving it all out on the course/track, super fun to watch

I know Yung Sung ran at least one road race. He was standing next to me about six-eight rows back at the start of a large and competitive 5K in San Francisco when he was in his 20's. I told him that he needed to move up to the front for the start. My recollection is that he came in around fifth in the race.

Jon Stevens ran 1:48.65 in high school. I don't know the details, but I believe he got injured in a track race around his freshman year of college that ended his career.