<p>If you're in the top 100 best in the nation for cross country or in a national race, do you have a high chance of being recruited for ivy leagues?</p>
<p>I like the numbers on this site below. If you’re female, look at XC women on the same site. Ivies are DI, and while they’d love to hold out for the top recruits in the nation, they have to maintain academic standards, so have to use that filter and can’t recuit some fast but academically-unqualified students. Therefore, they often take distance runners that are a little slower than the DI numbers listed here. (Except the Princeton women’s distance team, which has so much momentum right now, they seem to get whoever they want…)</p>
<p>[How</a> to Get Recruited for College Cross Country - Scholarships | NCSA](<a href=“http://www.ncsasports.org/recruiting-tools/College-Cross-Country-Recruiting/mens-cross-country-recruiting-guidelines]How”>http://www.ncsasports.org/recruiting-tools/College-Cross-Country-Recruiting/mens-cross-country-recruiting-guidelines)</p>
<p>I just looked at the Footlocker Regionals results and 22 guys in the west region ran under 15:30, which is the number the website uses for “rostered” DI athletes. I didn’t look at all four regions, but if you multiply 22 by 4 you get something close to 100.</p>
<p>So I’m going to say YES, the top 100 racers at Footlocker this year are probably Ivy recruitable from a strictly athletic standpoint. I was looking at the seeded race, which includes all comers (not just seniors) so you actually may be recruitable if you finish in the top 150 or so if you assume some of the guys in front of you aren’t graduating yet. </p>
<p>Of course on the women’s side, many more young runners seem to make the top of the heap and then may not repeat their fast freshman/soph time. A woman who runs her fastest races as a senior is golden.</p>
<p>Best wishes!</p>
<p>ok, so I guess if you finish in the top 100th at Nikes National, you have a high chance. But what if the time you got at Nikes isn’t under 15 and is your junior time the one that matters most?</p>
<p>oh, and what’s the difference between roster and recruit? Since you submit your app at the beginning of your senior year, does it mean you have to run a 15 minute by the end of your junior year? That would be hard because only 5 juniors in the entire U.S and 23 people in the country run a 5k at 15.</p>
<p>Don’t get so hung up on times in cross country- they really don’t mean very much because so much depends on course. For example, the course for NXN is incredibly slow- yesterday it ran close to two minutes slower than a track 5k. Only compare times and national leaderboards for track. And even with track times, coaches may prefer a 4:20 1600 runner to a 4:15 one, because the 4:20 is off of 30 miles per week and the 4:15 is off of 90. I’m not sure how much experience riverrunner has with cross country/distance running recruiting. </p>
<p>What I would do, assuming you’re a junior, is email the coaches at the schools that you’re interested in. You can simply ask for the times the coaches look for junior year, or introduce yourself, add a little bit about your running, and ask about the team. The coaches might still be busy with the current crop of seniors, but in that case you will probably get a nice sentence or two saying “Thanks, keep me updated on the rest of your year”. If you’re strongly opposed to emailing the coaches, you can look at the rosters on the school athletic website. (There are also usually prospective recruit forms to fill out, but they should be used in conjunction with an email). It involves a bit of research, but look up the times that the current crop of freshman or sophomores were running in high school, and that should give you a general idea of the times you should hit. But nothing compares to emailing the coaches.</p>
<p>I agree with dontknow. Finishes at one race on one day don’t really tell the whole story. The recruiting times on the website are generally PRs, and XC runners know there are courses and conditions that let you run amazingly fast. College XC coaches know these courses too, so if you make an profile (like a resume) you can post your PRs on various nationally known courses with the date you ran and the place you finished, and they’ll have a pretty good idea of your talent. As dontknow says, don’t get hung up on the sub-15 number.</p>
<p>dontknow’s advice about emailing coaches is also on target. Write a one page profile including you academic and athletic stats and send it to coaches at schools you’re interested in. Now is a perfect time to do it, since they’re entering the indoor season which is much less chaotic for the distance coaches than XC or Outdoor seasons. They can build a file for you, and as dontknow says, they can email you back. Many track and XC coaches don’t do much active recruiting until July after your junior year, though, so don’t throw out schools that don’t get back to you.</p>
<p>OP your main concern seems to be that you just finished your XC season at Nationals, and maybe didn’t have your fastest race ever, and won’t have a chance to run another XC race before recruiting season. Do you run well on the track? This might be your year to post a really fast 3200/3000 this spring, and let that speak for you. </p>
<p>Read threads here on the Athletic Recruit forum for lots of info on the timeline for recruiting. College coaches can call you in July, and will be following up on results presented by athletes introducing themselves by email/recruiting forms, and by looking at track and XC results on line at clearing houses like DirectAthletics.</p>
<p>The XC season will start for you at the end of August, so you will be training and racing, and going on college recruiting visits all at the same time. You COULD post a new PR in the fall during the season, and improve your chances for recruiting, of course. The track signing timeline is significantly later than many other sports. Top DI programs in the nation are still filling spots in February. If your target is the Ivies, those spots seem to be going during the window before the ED/EA (Nov 1) deadline by likely letter. </p>
<p>Best wishes, and welcome to the Athletic Recruiting part of CC. I see you’ve posted lots of good questions on this topic other places with little or no response. We’ll talk your ear off over here :)</p>
<p>I’ve known many runners who have participated in NXN and even those that were not ranked were recruited or are now running at D1 programs. This may be influenced by the strength/reputation of the program you come from, but participation in a national venue is a powerful thing.</p>