Currently a junior that would like to run for college. I have run Cross Country all three years but am only starting track this year. I love distance and during sophomore year as my peers were running track I trained myself to complete a marathon in 3:37. XC PR is 18:43 for 5k but I’ve been improving by over a minute each year and hope for 17:30 next year. How and when do I go about contacting coaches for schools that I am interested in? Especially considering my circumstances, no track, marathon, are there complications to this? Also what if I would not like to run track in college and only XC and train by myself during the winter and spring, in this heard of?
I’m going to assume you’re male?
The most important thing is to get the times for the college. But why aren’t you training with the team if it’s available? There is an important relationship between the coach and the athlete. Why would a college coach want you in his/her program if you’re just going to want to be doing your own workouts and training routine? Look to train under your high school coach to show that you can handle the team atmosphere. If your high school coach isn’t training you in the way you believe you should be trained, well at least try and compromise. If you like marathons, ask for higher mileage training. Do all his workouts, maybe add-in other of your own supplementary routines (core/compound lifts/dieting)
You need to learn to have faith in your coach, unless they don’t have faith in you.
Yes I’m male, whoops. I love my coach and train under him in cross country. It was arrogant of me to go off and train on my own last year but I really do love longer distance and wasn’t interested in track. I feel bad about it now but I loved the training and the marathon. My team has really ramped up the training with double runs and more mileage, we’re third in our state with a national ranking winner at our state (I’m not on varsity though). I was very happy with the training this year and want to run track. I guess I’m just saying I love to run distance, I don’t have a problem with my coach or anything. Do you have to qualify for 5k and 10ks in track?
I might have been a bit harsh, but do you know what sort of D3 programs you want to run at? Some are serious, some aren’t.
In my opinion, you should just commit to running the mainstream events at track and getting your lowest times in those (2mi and 1mi). As far as I know, the 5k and 10k isn’t run by high schoolers unless at top invitationals (Penn Relays). There’s plenty of time to run 5ks and 10ks in road races and club track meets if that’s your thing, but if your priority is running college track, I wouldn’t focus on that.
You could start by accessing a “sport-specific recruiting form” for one of your colleges of interest. By just reading the form, you will gain an idea of what may be of most interest to coaches. If the form indicates no stricture against an early submission, then I’d think it would be to your advantage to begin this process soon.
X-country and track & field are distinct sports and will come with different expectations. This may be to your advantage, in that their official seasons may be limited in duration (both in competition and in training).
You need to sign up for indoor and outdoor track. Run the 800 (outdoor only, at least in my state), 1000 (indoor only), 1600, and 3200. Also see if you can run a track or flat course (official) 5k.
XC meet times mean nothing because of terrain, but qualifying and placing in state championships for cross country does. Don’t worry too much about recruitment because there are no scholarships for D3. You can do what I am doing and talk to D3 coaches after applying to see what the program is like.
PM me if you have mire questions.
Even for D3 schools, you should definitely be in contact with schools/coaches well before you apply. This will 1) help you find the proper fit, 2) help you gain admission and 3) help with your ultimate integration with the team.
Okay that sounds good. I’m going to talk to my high school coach as well but I think I’ll start talking to coaches once a get a couple times in track. Probably around February I’ll contact people.
Run indoor and outdoor track, and get in contact with coaches at D3 schools you’re interested in this spring. Make sure you keep your academics very strong–unless you improve significantly on the track or senior year XC, your running is not going to give you an admissions boost. That being said, it’ll be your first season running track, and if your coach’s program is good, it could be feasible for you to hit 4:40/10:00/16:50 for 16/32/5k by senior fall, which might get some interest from mid-tier D3s.
As a collegiate XC athlete, you would be expected to participate in track. Collegiate meets include the 5k (and invites will include 10ks), so you can focus on longer distances. You could even try the steeple if you wanted to.
Don’t mention the marathon to college coaches; it’s more likely to hurt you than help you, as it indicates that you’ve been doing higher mileage than most high schoolers. The time isn’t going to help you either–unless your marathon was on a really slow course, your 3:37 is probably weaker than your 18:43.
Finally, do you have any idea where you’d want to run? Some places have essentially open walk-on policies and will take the majority of athletes who show up; other places (Williams, MIT, and CMU come to mind) have hard team size limits and will cut kids.
Those times do seem quite fast and I’d probably be looking for lower tier more walk on schools. Good to know I can do 5 and 10ks in college track. I averaged about 45mpw during the marathon so it’s not a lot; I stayed with that mileage this year XC anyway. No, my marathon isn’t very fast but my coach seemed impressed simply because many do marathons just to finish and I was able to race it at a reasonably respectable time. 18:43 definitely looks better than the marathon unless I was joining a team on marathoners, and even then. I am training for a half and hope to hit 88 minutes so I might mention that. I’m looking at Caltech, Swarthmore, and U Chicago as my top three schools (others as well) so they aren’t super competitive like the top programs you mentioned. I’m thinking about steeplechase, one person on our team was quite good (I believe 3rd at Eastern Relays) last year without taking it seriously though he is a lot faster than me. I believe I could hit under 11 for 3200 but maybe better. I might improve a lot this year having never run faster track workouts before. Why would higher mileage be an issue? I’ve never been injured besides taking a week off for some small issues recently.
Swarthmore definitely is an easier team to walk on to; I think they take everyone, but if you can make a difference on the team, he might push for you in admissions. I tried contacting him when I was a senior and he never responded, but then again, I started contacting coaches really late… Also talk to Haverford, I hear Tom Donnelly is incredible and he’s willing to coach anybody.
As far as I know, UChicago has a stud on their girls team this year (All-American I think?). So I’m not sure if they’re easy to walk-on to. I don’t know anything about the team tho, check their times.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with higher mileage if you really think you can handle it, but you really need to understand that injury rates become so much greater if you don’t build into it properly. There’s really no early warning signs of stress fractures and those knock you out for months.
Also if you tell coaches that you’ve been running 60 mile weeks and your times aren’t incredible, then they’re probably gonna think that you don’t have much room to improve. It’s far easier to coach talent-- people who run fast on low mileage.
That makes sense on the mileage. I know U Chicagos girls team is quite good. Their men aren’t nearly as good. I might look into Haverford as well if they will take anyone, I know their team is quite good.
Haverford makes no cuts part of their quaker spirit I think lol
I literally don’t know anyone who ran indoor track. I never even heard of it until this forum. I would imagine it is not essential?
“Also talk to Haverford, I hear Tom Donnelly is incredible and he’s willing to coach anybody.”
Yes, great coach who does wonders with his team (no cuts!) and an excellent training regimen, good team camaraderie, impressive results. Go Goats!
“I literally don’t know anyone who ran indoor track”
You live in So Cal. No need for indoor season since one can run outdoors all year.
We have xc in the fall and track in the spring and the kids who only do those sports take it somewhat easy in the winter. 3 seasons sounds like a lot.
We don’t really stop running at all. We have informal practices right now even though there is not a season going on. I take about a week off and go right back into it. Track starts the day after winter break here.
As others have said, as a XC runner, you will be expected to run track. Even if you want to focus on cross country, and longer distances are your strength, the coach will still need to see and compare your track times with other potential athletes. There is simply no way to compare cross country times, courses and conditions vary too much.
Indoor track in high school varies by area of the country, but the point is, others looking to run in college will have posted, verifiable times from either last year or recent indoor meets that they can send to a coach. If you don’t have an indoor season, try to get to some meets that post results on the internet, early in the outdoor season so a coach can gauge your abilities. Since you haven’t done track before, you just need to get some times out there to help in discussions. In our area (SW) there are several all-comer USATF meets that high schoolers compete in since our state doesn’t have an official indoor track season. You may have to join a club, but many high school coaches have off season clubs that they manage. Ask your hs coach if he knows of any.
In college, you will likely be forbidden from running marathons during the season, the recovery time is too long and impacts your performance while you are representing the school. It is not the mileage, it is the intensity at the longer distance, As a miler, I routinely did 50+ mile weeks early in the season, but there where long runs and shorter speed work on the track, not high intensity long runs. If you sign up for events to do a long run with others, that is fine, but consider not doing or talking about anything longer than a half marathon. Your marathon times are not beneficial to a college coach and will raise more questions than benefit. The dedication to train and do one properly is admirable, so maybe include it in your personal statement, but don’t be surprised if a coach is not too excited when he hears you have done one, especially if he/she thinks you are doing your own thing regardless of what the rest of the hs team is doing.
My Daughter is a xc/track runner who was recruited for Division 3 schools, including UChicago, the top Nescacs, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, WashU, Pomona/Pitzer, etc.
You DEFINITELY need to run track as well as XC, unless you have a very good reason (i.e., you play soccer or lacrosse in the spring). Do the 800, 1600 or the 3200.
PM me if you have specific questions