I am currently a sophomore (female) and I was just curious about times needed for a Division 1 or Division 2 scholarship. Thank you!
male or female?
female
Full rides aren’t that easy to come by in track - IIRC a D1 women’s team has a maximum of the equivalent of 18 full rides and rosters are typically 40 ore more. So most scholarships are partial.
Some schools publish marks as a rough indication of what they expect for recruits and walk-ons, so you might check out sites for schools you’re interested in. You can also look at results for conference championships and see what it takes to score in those meets.
Bluewater is dead on the mark. Check conference championship meets, to warrant any $ most schools are going to expect marks that will score them points at conference. So check some of your top choices and see what It takes on trffs.com
One additional item, most track scholarships are based on Junior year times so don’t necessarily think you have until your senior year to hit those marks, especially now with the earlier signing date. Senior year XC times will probably get some looks but the end of your Jr season and summer following it are your most important periods of time.
To add to what lubbub has advised, while you will need to start figuring out where you fit based on junior year times, with the exception of the ivies, track recruiting continues into senior year. The situation at any one school in terms of what they are recruiting for can change from year to year based on who is already there, new coaches coming in or a shift in program emphasis (distance vs. field events).
Typically all you will hear from coaches is a standard recruiting letters that asks you to fill out the recruit questionnaire. You will need to initiate contact via email with most coaches. Your best approach, for now, is to keep your grades up to get yourself admitted into the schools you are interested in and to start dialogue with coaches your junior year based on track times, which are easier to compare. Most schools have a guideline on their websites with times they are recruiting for but they tend to be flexible, so there is no one single number that anyone can tell you to hit.
Something we like to do is to look at the rosters for the schools our son is interested in and then head over to Athletic.net to see what sorts of times those kids were running in high school. It will give you a sense of what the coaches recruited. Also, if you are out of state or out of region and not necessarily a national-caliber athlete, it would be useful for you to express interest in a program by filling out their online recruitment form on the track website and then contact the coach via email to express your interest, indicate times, and let them know you have filled out a form and would like to discuss the possibility of you running there. The key will be to make sure you are a good fit in terms of your current times before contacting. If you are on the bubble, go ahead and contact and then you can send a follow-up at the end of the season if your times improved and give them the updated information. If you are good enough, you will get on their radar and you might have never been noticed before. For example, our son is looking at schools that are thousands of miles away and there is no reason for them to look to our state for recruits, but he is expressing to them that he is interested so they know of him and know he is a possibility for them if they want.
What events do you do? Are you distance? sprints?