Maryland Walk On Standards Faster Than Any of Their Current Runners?

It's easier to have a fast walk-on standard and then make exceptions at your discretion than to have a slower standard and risk having to tell kids that they can't be on the team even though they hit the standard.

With a 4:22 standard, they can still let a 4:30 kid onto the team when/if they want to. If they lower the standard to 4:30, though, then they could end up with a bit of a headache when twenty kids show up to campus thinking they've earned a spot on the team because they have a 4:29 PR.

Read the published standards for many teams and it always includes a phrase informing kids that the standard is the minimum. It is not a guarantee because it dspends on current team strength and academic achievements of the recruit.

Scholar Expert wrote:

Read the published standards for many teams and it always includes a phrase informing kids that the standard is the minimum. It is not a guarantee because it dspends on current team strength and academic achievements of the recruit.

I am aware of this. My point was not that the coach would be obligated to let a kid onto the team just because they'd hit the standard. Regardless of the stated caveat, people will form their own expectations hopes based on the standard, and certain students and helicopter parents know how to make it a huge pain to tell them no.

If you are challenged by a parent with political connections or just harassed by an entitled kid, "4:22 is our minimum standard and you/your slowass kid did not run that fast" is just a more solid argument to be able to make than getting into the weeds about the team's current needs.

It's just easier to set stringent standards and make exceptions than it is to set lax standards and not accept people who have hit the standard, even with the caveats clearly stated. I can't think of any reason that a coach would be better off doing the latter.

Dozens of kids take visits to schools and many instate kids hit published standards at their flagship school but the coach may only offer a few of them walkon spots if they have a good recruiting class. Your process makes sense but that is not typically how it goes. I have coached many kids who did not make it onto the team of their choosing even though they were well under the published standard.

Maryland is a decent school that is severely underfunded. It is a good place to go for an average instate kid who wouldn't be able to run D1 at a faster school.

Hard to have a good distance team on the track without XC.

Valmon is a joke that is how. His little puppet is no better either. Maryland is a great school and it is a shame that those two are holding back a program that was once one of the best on the east coast.

Route One Get It Done wrote:

Valmon is a joke that is how. His little puppet is no better either. Maryland is a great school and it is a shame that those two are holding back a program that was once one of the best on the east coast.

Who is the puppet?

It is quite flat around the UMCP campus. Flat bike trails do not great runners make.

Not sure how much of a difference this makes but they don't have men's cross country, it got cut in 2011.

prnodan wrote:

It is quite flat around the UMCP campus. Flat bike trails do not great runners make.

except for the entirety of Berwynn, Greenbelt Park, and Adelphi. also tell that to every great runner from the plains

I also heard a majority of their practices are on your own. One practice a day. Not sure how you create a winning team doing that. What is the coach doing all day?

Coming from a powerhouse school who won, we had official doubles almost everyday (well ya know ncaa regulations haha), it is hard to fathom D1 runners just kinda running when they feel like it especially if the culture isn't there.

That’s basically how it is now. Even back when Matthew Jelley was the distance coach and there were official meeting times daily, the mens side wasn’t deep enough to support having workout partners during the indoor and spring seasons. How are you really supposed to improve without teammates at your side?

Ultimately it comes down to head coach Valmon doesn’t care about distance running (1500-10k, 800 barely). He only pays lip service to it because most of the donors are distance alumni. He handicaps his assistants abilities to recruit. Thus, the “distance” side has 5 men - 3x800 runners, a miler, and a 3k+ guy who all mostly workout separately; there is no culture. Apparently there are plans to bring back mens XC, not because the Big Ten cares, but because the donors are mad.

Word is Valmon is leaving this year though since his son, on the basketball and track rosters (nepotism?), is graduating. Maybe a proper head coach can come in and we can stop seeing high school times on a storied D1 team.

Route One Get It Done wrote:

Maryland is a great school.

Let's not go overboard. It's fine, but hardly great.

prnodan wrote:

It is quite flat around the UMCP campus. Flat bike trails do not great runners make.

North Central College in Naperville, IL is flat as a pancake and they seem to produce decent distance runners.

I walked on to the team 20 years ago - last year of Coach Dan Rincon's tenure. He evaluated who made the varsity squad by 40 meter time, max bench, standing long jump, etc. It was maddening.

Maryland's wrestlers had to find their own way to the wrestling match with PSU this weekend. They could not afford a bus.

skwilli wrote:

Maryland's wrestlers had to find their own way to the wrestling match with PSU this weekend. They could not afford a bus.

No doubt maryland has had a dire financial situation these last few years. I saw however the track team was flying to kentucky just a few weeks ago. For a regular season meet, and not even a good one at that.

So many meets they could drive to and save money. Seems like a culture of mismanagement in Maryland athletics in general.

On an unrelated note I saw maryland finished bottom of the big ten in wrestling going 0-7 last year. I know its the big ten, but they have been absolutely abysmal. They used to be a respectable program winning the ACC, once again terrible athletics department I blame.

skwilli wrote:

Maryland's wrestlers had to find their own way to the wrestling match with PSU this weekend. They could not afford a bus.

That's crazy. Do you have a link? Not that I don't believe you, but I have a friend who went to Maryland and I'd like to rub his nose in it.