ok guy wrote:
Idiot alert wrote:
Yes. Only 28 guys broke 4:10 in High School this year. Over 300 did it in college.
Ok, that is four or five classes including red shirts, then you have how many foreign athletes in there? Then how many athletes ran the mile total, how many of them ran a mile in HS?
Yes.
High schoolers might get under 4:10 as a senior, some juniors. Once in college, you can do it as redshirt, F, S, J, S. And so can the foreign imports. In college, many are at the 100 percent of their ability, compared to the 95 percent they might be at in high school. Not even that 5 percent improvement is worth it to a collegiate coach, however, they all want the 20-mile-weekly 800 kid turning 1:55 with perfect form. Nobody else is worth a second look.
The 800-pound elephant in this discussion is that in high school, the real fast kids tend to get there on their own - the training they're doing is ideal for them, as they've figured it out, and the coach tends to go that direction to allow that success to shine on them.
Once in college, though, you're at the mercy of the program, and the coaches. Injuries, and programs that don't work knock many off their game. Then that redshirted second-year sophomore fighting for a team spot is running slower than they did two and three years ago, and the work isn't working for them. This isn't tough to figure out.