Who’s the most improved runner you’ve ever seen from freshman to senior year of high school?

nturner2468 wrote: Also has anyone ever started freshman year irrelevant in the xc community that went on to qualify for foot locker nationals?

Chris Solinsky (Stevens Point HS), his first 5km x-country was 19:xx and in his final year of HS he won Footlocker.

Footlocker National XC Championship, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 14 Dec 2002

1. Chris Solinsky (Stevens Point HS) Stevens Point, WI 14:40.5; 2. Wesley Smith (Hudson HS) Hudson, OH 15:01.0; 3. Bobby Curtis (Saint Xavier HS) Louisville, KY 15:06.1; 4. Neftalem Araia (Lawrence North HS) Indianapolis, IN 15:06.4; 5. Matt DeBole (Mount Tabor HS) Winston-Salem, NC 15:12.7; 6. Garrett Heath (Winona Senior HS) Winona, MN 15:14.5; 7. Mohamed Trafeh (Duarte HS) Duarte, CA 15:14.8; 8. Ahmed Haji (Conard HS) West Hartford, CT 15:15.3; 9. Benjamin True (Greely HS) North Yarmouth, ME 15:16.1

cheers.

Jim Ryun

I went from a 20:05 first XC race ever, actually ran slower 20:40 in my second race, to 15:53 at the State Meet my senior year.

Also 5:28 first ever 1600 during XC prior to first meet and 4:28 by sophomore track.

I’m also built like a dwarf and never had the typical runners build (5’6”, 140lb).

Train harder than those around you.

Alan

I’m sure there are other countless examples.

Alan

Perhaps in the dog days of August an out of shape Solinsky ran 19 minutes as a freshman (unverified) but make no mistake he was 25th at the state meet in 16:40 on a wet and soggy October day. The Ridges is unlike Indiana or Michigan state meet courses and is rather challenging with the twists and turns and long uphill at the end. By first week of September Solinsky was in the 17s on legit courses and was fairly competitive the rest of the season. Chris also ran 9:30 in the 3200 the following spring so if he did actually run 19 minutes it's because he had been playing soccer all summer and didnt know how race cross country yet.

Jim Ryun is a good suggestion. He was above 5 in the mile and maybe screwing around with the wrong kids smoking cigarettes at the time or just getting over that phase. Sophomore year he was a different beast.

Freshman year - Just squeaked under 20 for 3mi, above 21 for 5k

Senior year - 15 flat for 3mi, 15:50 for 5k on a fair but not very fast course, medalled at a competitive state meet and division, 12th at NXR despite doing indoor base work instead of actual tapering.

Rebel w/o clue wrote: Jim Ryun is a good suggestion. He was above 5 in the mile and maybe screwing around with the wrong kids smoking cigarettes at the time or just getting over that phase. Sophomore year he was a different beast.

it isn't immediately obvious how this has anything to do with the OP's question about cross country runners. did Ryun ever qualify for Footlocker?

cheers.

Foot Locker history, you can Google it. He skipped it for the Olympics while in college -

https://www.footlockercc.com/

Ultimately it’s about hard work. I doubt you’ll see many guys go from 20:00 to sub 16:00 5k on 30mpw. Although you could say the ability to train without breaking down is also a talent.

Alan

Flespon said: Foot Locker history, you can Google it. He skipped it for the Olympics while in college

indicating quite clearly that you have no idea what you are talking about.

1. Footlocker is the national High School cross country championship, so a college athlete doesn't "skip it" he is no longer allowed to run.

2. on that page you linked to it says "40th Annual," which means it started in 1979 which is about seven years after Ryun retired. but, coincidentally, the first winner of Footlocker was from Kansas. Brent Steiner (Shawnee Mission HS) Overland Park, Kansas.

I freely admit that there may have been a national HS cross country championship before then, which I am not aware of, and Ryun may have run in that, and if he had done so then he would be a perfectly legitimate reply to the OP's question. but I have never heard any mention of Jim Ryun running cross country and it is certainly not something he is famed for.

cheers.

Runningart2004 wrote:

I went from a 20:05 first XC race ever, actually ran slower 20:40 in my second race, to 15:53 at the State Meet my senior year.

Also 5:28 first ever 1600 during XC prior to first meet and 4:28 by sophomore track.

I’m also built like a dwarf and never had the typical runners build (5’6”, 140lb).

Train harder than those around you.

Alan

You consider 5-foot-6 to be dwarf territory?

Andrew Wheating

Freshman PRs: 1500m: DNS, 5000m: DNS

Senior PRs: 1500m: 3:54, 5000m: 14:55

My friend joined the track team in 8th grade. Dude was short, chubby, and very slow. He somehow managed to get coach to let him run in a meet, and proceeded to finish DFL in the 800 with a time of 3:00. He didn’t compete again that year. We go to high school and he joins the xc team, where he runs north of 23 minutes for 5k. This fool doesn’t quit though. He begins to train. Freshman track season he runs 5:28 for 1600. 4 years later and he’s at 4:45 and 16:50. And then he was done running.

Drew Hunter.

1600m/mile 4:41 to 3:57

800m 2:04 to 1:48

Grant Fisher has already been running many years when he was a Freshman, and started at 4:26. Hunter outpaced him, probably a combination of even higher talent and better coach (Tinman).

OP: 4:45 and 16:50 are still pedestrian times for a guy, especially when he is senior. I was much slower than your friend when I started, and now am at his level and still consider myself very slow.

Rebel w/o clue wrote:

Perhaps in the dog days of August an out of shape Solinsky ran 19 minutes as a freshman (unverified) but make no mistake he was 25th at the state meet in 16:40 on a wet and soggy October day

He ran 19:30 in middle school, and also ran 10:57 in the 3200m. Both very slow debut times. Chris Solinsky wasn't exactly lighting the running world on fire when he first started, he was a slow, chubby guy.

But he improved tremendously once he started training. At freshman year, he already progressed to 4:31, 10 flat 3200 and 16:40 on a hard 5k cross country course.

Talent is multi-faceted. In Solinsky's case, his base level was bad or average at best (there are probably still many guys who debut even slower than 11 flat in 3200m). But his response to training was better than any other runner we have ever seen in the US.

Also his ability to handle training was unsurpassed. He never ran slower than 5:50 miles in training in high school, at ridiculous mileage with doubling every day.

Sky Low Low wrote:

Runningart2004 wrote:

I went from a 20:05 first XC race ever, actually ran slower 20:40 in my second race, to 15:53 at the State Meet my senior year.

Also 5:28 first ever 1600 during XC prior to first meet and 4:28 by sophomore track.

I’m also built like a dwarf and never had the typical runners build (5’6”, 140lb).

Train harder than those around you.

Alan

You consider 5-foot-6 to be dwarf territory?

yep

carry on

Miler best ever wrote:

Jim Ryun

Grant Fisher

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Drew Hunter.

1600m/mile 4:41 to 3:57

800m 2:04 to 1:48

Grant Fisher has already been running many years when he was a Freshman, and started at 4:26. Hunter outpaced him, probably a combination of even higher talent and better coach (Tinman).

OP: 4:45 and 16:50 are still pedestrian times for a guy, especially when he is senior. I was much slower than your friend when I started, and now am at his level and still consider myself very slow.

Not true.

Fisher played soccer. He ran very few races until his junior year in HS.

Ryun and XC:

https://trackandfieldnews.com/discussion/showthread.php?149752-Jim-Ryun-and-Cross-Country

Alan