<p>My S, a junior, loves running x-country and wants to be able to continue running in college. His times are not competitive; he runs because he loves it and he also loves the team camaraderie. he has run all 3 seasons of track since his freshman year so he is very commited, yet timewise he remains in the middle of the pack.
S believes that he will be able to get on a Division 111 team but I'm not so sure. I think his best bet might be schools that offer IM or club teams.
I'm hoping someone can give advice about Division 111 teams and perhaps suggest some schools that have club or IM x-country or track teams. This is so important to my S and I want to find places where he can continue to run.<br>
S is a B+/A- student at a very competive hs in NJ. He just took the PSAT's and we don't have the results yet but based on last year's PSAT's I think he'll score in the 2100 range.
He wants a school "not too big and not too small", preferably "not in the middle of nowhere".<br>
S is very unsure of what he'll major in but probably English/creative writing.
I'd appreciate any/all suggestions as i'm not sure where to begin. It is so important to my S to be on a track team, but I feel pretty sure this will be hard to do.</p>
<p>My daughter runs at Goucher and just about anyone can be on the team. I recently went down to the first ever Landmark Conference xc meet and it appeared that most of the other schools in the conference did also. Your son's scores might be a bit high for Goucher and I don't know what his interests are, but similar sized schools would more than likely have a spot for him on the track team or xc team. PM me if you want more info specifically about Goucher and the coach.</p>
<p>Oh, Just reread your post. Goucher has an awesome creative writing program.</p>
<p>a couple questions first ... When you write D111 do you mean Division 1? What are your son's track times for the mile or two mile? Given these answers a bunch of people can provide pretty good input for you.</p>
<p>A couple general comments.
* Virtually all cross-country and track programs allow walk-ons and have loose thresholds for cutting kids if they cut at all ... a simple email to the coach at any school in which your son is interested can answer this question for any specific school
* How big a contributor does your son want to be? While a lot of schools do not cut a lot of the walk-ons may only run in the home dual meets. Is that OK or does your son want to run in all the meets? To score for the team? To travel with the team? Or is it OK if the main focus is the practices and being on the team? The more he wants to compete the lower down the food chain he needs to go.
* To run regularly at a D1 school your son would likely need to be an all-state or at least all-league level runner.
* At the D2 and D3 levels programs are much more vaired and the the quality runs from high D1 level to teams that will run times similar to high school. I ran in the high 4:20s in high school and talked to a couple D3 schools where as a senior in HS I would have been their second best or best distance runner with my HS times.</p>
<p>Cross country and track are great sports for college ... there are schools that fit athletically for virtually any reasonable high school varsity runner.</p>
<p>sarha, 3to go is correct. At almost all D3 colleges x-country teams are comprised of walkons and will retain almost any student who desires to participate. Poorer runners may not be able to participate in all the meets unless they field a jr varsity or B team, but they will be able to practice, improve and participate in the scheduled time trials which are intersquad races.</p>
<p>Most colleges have team web sites. If he wants to have a chance of competing he should look at the team time statistics to see if his times would be competitive. If he merely want to be on the team, have him call the coaches of the colleges he is interested in to see what their policies are. Or email a few members of the team.</p>
<p>Thankyou all for your speedy responses. I did mean Division3 for my son, his times are 5:10 for a mile and 19:20 for x-country 5k though he hopes to break 18 next year.<br>
His times are not really competitive, and of course he knows that, but he really wants to be part of a team as he has enjoyed it so much.
I showed your posts to my S and he is quite happy to see that there is hope for him in college.
He would prefer to be able to compete but he will be happy to be able to practice with the team if that is the only option open.
curlygirl, thanks for the info on Goucher. We looked at Goucher for my D and were impressed.
3togo and originaloog, thankyou for your info. Is there a website that lists Division 2 and 3 schools or a way to determine that or do you just have to check each individual school/
Again, thankyou for your help. My S and I appreciate it.</p>
<p>from the ncaa.org webstite ... here is the list of the D3 (or DIII) cross country teams ... NCAA</a> Sports Sponsorship</p>
<p>If you back up a few levels you can find listings of the DI and DII teams and the recruiting rules. A couple random comments.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A lot D3 teams do not have big recruiting budgets and with a 5:10 mile they probably will not be seeking out your son. That said, my experience with D3 coaches is they are very responsive to athletes who contact them first ... typically this is how they first learn of potential candidates other then top-top recruits. So go to school web-pages and find the cross country page and contact the coach.</p></li>
<li><p>A 5:00 mile will do just fine for lots of D3 programs ... and there are tons of them ... so finding both an academic and athletic fit should be quite doable!</p></li>
</ul>
<p>What everyone else said. D3 programs. The large majority of the varsity sports at my school took all-comers, including people who had never played the sport before, and in some cases people who had never played ANY sport before.</p>
<p>Caltech is a Div III school that prides itself providing intercollegiate athletic competition opportunities for pretty much any student who wants to compete - even those who did not compete in high school.</p>
<p>Also, you may want to look at NAIA schools.</p>
<p>Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster, PA - good reputation in science, liberal arts, near a small city, nice distance from NJ.</p>
<p>My son had similar stats, academic and athletic, to yours and is enjoying his college's running club. Flexible and fun.</p>
<p>Whitman in Washington might be worth a look</p>
<p>If you are interested in D2 and scholarships:
NCAA Division II National Champions Cross Country - Men's
1999 Western State of Colorado<br>
2000 Western State of Colorado
2001 Western State of Colorado<br>
2002 Western State of Colorado
2003 Adams State<br>
2004 Western State of Colorado
2005 Western State of Colorado
see a pattern?</p>
<p>
[quote]
see a pattern?
[/quote]
Well, yes. Yes I do. It seems that they run downhill in Gunnison. ;)</p>
<p>As a serious response- there is a D3 school for every level of high school athlete . The top "national" caliber teams in D3 are very competitive.</p>
<p>"Well, yes. Yes I do. It seems that they run downhill in Gunnison."
Maybe I should have listed the sites where the championships took place:
1999 Joplin, MO
2000 Chino, CA
2001 Slippery Rock, PA
2002 Ashland, OH
2003 Raleigh, NC
2004 Evansville, IN
2005 Pomona, CA</p>
<p>But then, Gunnison doesn't have the prestige factor some people are looking for.</p>
<p>So they don't run downhill as much as move waaaaayyyy downhill for the championships. According to a quick Wikipedia glance, Gunnison sits at 7703 feet. Training at that altitude has to have an influence.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. S will check all of them out.
3togo: I really appreciate the link listing the Division x-country teams, it will make it easier for S to refer to while compiling is his list.
Curmudgeon, are you saying that not all Division 3 teams are created equally? So, some teams might be less likely to welcome walk ons?<br>
I can see I have a lot of research to do to try and sort through all this info.</p>
<p>
Yes. That is exactly what I'm saying. I don't know cross-country specifically so something could be unique to that sport but I doubt it. My D was a "dang good" high school athlete that had very good skills , so-so athleticism, and the heart and practice habits of a champion. A school like Bowdoin (or WashU) wasn't that interested whereas she may (possibly) have started as a freshman at some schools she considered, and seen decent PT at many others. I expect she would have been considered a "good" D3 player before she ended her career. Does that help at all?</p>
<p>This runner is not going to run at Western State. It turns out some of the top runners in the country.</p>
<p>Cur is correct- just because a school is DIII does not mean it does not have an extremely competitive and selective program. You might be able to walk on, but how fun is that if all your teammmates are a mile ahead of you in the workouts? Williams, Tufts, Chicago, Amherst, NYU all have very competitive and serious track/cross country programs. My son had trouble deciding between some of these DIIIs and the DI he chose.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon and Momof WC, thank you for clarifying. Yes, Curmudgeon, your post did really help me see the wide range of possibilities within Division3. And MofWC, you are quite correct that S would not enjoy being so far out of league with his teammates.
I can see it is going to be tougher than my S imagined to find a school where he can run.
I'm thinking it might be more realistic to research schools with x-country club teams.
Again, I want to thank everyone for their help.</p>