college recruitment

Only D3 at this point if you do not improve. Run 4:19 and 9:19 this year and you can walkon at many P5s. Run 4:12 and 9:08 this year and you can get a small scholarship at many P5s and you can walkon at the top programs.

Scholar Expert wrote:

Only D3 at this point if you do not improve. Run 4:19 and 9:19 this year and you can walkon at many P5s. Run 4:12 and 9:08 this year and you can get a small scholarship at many P5s and you can walkon at the top programs.

Yeah, D3 for sure. Can easily walk on to D2 teams and even get some money now. NAIA also a possibility now.

Regarding D1, a 9:19 is more impressive than 4:19. Better get down to 4:11 to have the same interest as 9:19.

Your equivalencies are way off. Here is one school's walkon standards of 4:16/9:15.

Walk on to crappy d1, or even an average/decent one that takes you as a shot in the dark. You could actually get decent money from some of the worst d1 schools (think dead last at XC regionals). Money from d2. Full scolly at an average but funded NAIA, partial from good or low funded NAIA. You could make any d3 team.

Untrue. Bad D1 programs don't give scholarships to slower guys. The opposite is normally true. I have had guys try this approach only to discover that bad programs have little to no money. 9:20 guys got no offers from the worst programs but got small offers from top notch distance programs. When schools dump 10 scholarships into distance they can take a risk. When a school only has 3 scholarships across the entire track team, they use them sparingly. D2 and NAIA is no different. Most are underfunded or unfunded.

So first things first don’t listen to a single one of these guys up here. Let me talk to you as a guy who actually has contact with college coaches. Your range will get you a walk on at average/below average D1 programs, and scholarship money at a lot of D2s.

Your first order of business this year should be getting your 800 to like 1:58. Your times say you can already do that and college coaches love runners that have 15:XX XC times and a sub 2 800.

You should also be reaching out to coaches of schools you are interested in and letting them know that you are a junior, these are your PRs, and asking them if you are qualified to walk on and if not what kind of improvements you’d need to make in order to get there. Most coaches I’ve contacted have been really helpful, some even going as far as talking to me about training and how I should change it to yield better results.

From what I understand, Scholarships are pretty rare for freshman and you usually have to earn them a year or two into college, but if you get to be a very desirable runner (usually once you dip under 9:20 4:20 1:58) the offers start to come.

Good luck!

Are you going to believe an anonymous guy on Letsrun or are you going to believe what college coaches are taking the time to put on their websites for the world to see? The Walk-on standards for many schools are posted. For P5 schools, the average is 4:18 and 9:18 to walk-on. That means that you have to run at least that fast. It is not a guarantee. Some years it could be faster if the team is already staffed. Scholarships start at 4:12 and 9:10 and that normally means books. To get real money, 4:08 or sub 9. And don't believe anyone who tells you that you can work into a scholarship after you get there. They are only going to increase it if you are at risk to leave.

You're doing very well. With a good junior track season and some improvement you could be looking at a number of D1 schools. For P5 schools, maybe need to run a bit faster but put up some fast times this year and then post again.

No. OP should listen to me. Look at my username.

The idea that coaches across the board care about a distance runner's 800 time is flat BS. I know a kid who ran 9:10 but only had a 2:03 800 PR with enough tries to make it legit. He got tons of offers, and not one coach cared about his 800 PR.

Also, scholarships are not "pretty rare" for freshmen. More often than not, the scholarship offer you get as a freshman is what you continue to get all through college. Sometimes a walk-on improves a ton unexpectedly and will get some money later on, but that's by far the minority situation. Sometimes also, a program may get more scholarship money after a kid has signed, and the coach might disperse that to the top performers, but again, a minority situation.

Sub 9:20 will get you some interest from D1 mid-majors on down. Need to be at 9:12 or so and faster to get any interest at all from really competitive D1 programs.

D1 colleges don't give a crap about a 1:58 800 kid.

martin arias wrote:

where can my junior and sophomore times get me

junior xc: 15:27

Soph 3200: 9:36

Soph 1600: 4:28

Soph 800: 2:02

Junior 400 (in Xc): 53

You’re okay. If you work hard and stay healthy, you should see further improvements Junior year. And it just depends on what caliber D1 school. But keep your grades up—that makes it easier for schools you’re on the fence with. And don’t rule out D2 or D3. And in the end, it is about the quality of the education as 99% of collegiate runners won’t go pro and are going to have to get a day job at some point.

I had the same/slightly slower track times my sophomore year but I qualified for Footlocker my junior year and college coaches went nuts. Times are important but if you can perform well in big meets that'll attract attention

No you did not. Show me somebody with those track times who qualified for Footlocker.