Hello everyone. As a freshman in high school and a runner, I know I have to start progressing towards my goals in XC and track to be a competitive candidate for D1 or Ivy recruiters. Taken from milesplit.com, my 5K PR this fall in cross-country was an 18:04.28, and my first 1,600 in indoor track was a 5:10.77 and I'm looking to break 5 this season. What time should I be focusing on for a possibility to run D1 or Ivy? Thank you.
Are you a girl or a boy?
Check your prospective school’a website for their xc roster, and see what times their current students have in order to get an idea of what they want. Most of their recruited athletes are state or nationally ranked, so enter in races such as foot locker regions or the Nike Cross Nationals. It’s very good that you are thinking of recruitment options your freshman year, as many colleges like when you contact them your sophmore year of high school.
I am a male freshman. My times were good enough for Varsity this fall, but I know I have to drop at least two more minutes to be looked at. Thanks for your input I will definitely do that.
Additionally, do you know of how I would go about contacting scouts or college coaches when do get to my sophomore or junior year? Your response was much appreciated and knowledgeable so I’d just like to ask you about this. Thank you.
Stanford took NCAA second with the guys running just over 30 minutes for the 10K. That’s less than 15:00 for the 5K for HS.
You really need to get down well under 16:00 in the 5k to be considered for Division 1. That’s not easy. It is a little early to be thinking about that right now, IMO.
I would only add that because XC courses vary so much, comparing times is difficult. As neonerudite mentioned, competing and placing at State and National meets will be important. If you want something quantifiable, 4:17ish in the outdoor 1600m and 9:20ish in the 3200 will put you in the D1/Ivy ballpark, IMO.
It’s good to to have goals, but as ThankYouforHelp said, as a HS freshman don’t get too fixated on it.
just as a reference my s was recruited (and goes to) by a mid D1 athletic school - (great academics) his Junior times were
800 - 1:57
1,600 - 4:24
3,200 - 9:29
the 5k times are so very arbitrary since it all depends on the course that you run on.
Look to improve yearly, take it slow and enjoy your time in HS
Thank you all for contributing your advice, and I appreciate it so much because I didn’t have any solid goals yet. A few of you had said that I shouldn’t get too fixated on it just yet, which I am aware will hinder my enjoyment of high school, so I assure you this isn’t going to be my only focus. Thank you again.