What times are needed to pass tryouts for track or cross country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're asking the question now it's obviously too late for XC in 2025, and indoor track has already started and held the first meet of the season.

But outdoor track is in Spring.

[Anonymous]

Where?

[Anonymous]

Some schools let anyone on the team but put in requirements to compete in meets in XC.

For track, a lot of schools do cut because there's only a limited number of slots in each event at meets.

[Anonymous]

Here’s the McLean HS track site with lots of training info.

https://sites.google.com/view/mcleanhstracknfieldandxc/team-homepage

In general, if you can run the full 5k as a freshman and if coach thinks you’re trying, they won’t cut you. You’ll be on the JV squad though.

HS Xc and track is actually 3 sports seasons: cross country/xc in fall, winter or indoor track in winter, and spring/ outdoor track in spring. They have different events and times needed.

Your kid should be running 3-4 days a week for 30 minutes minimum in the 6-8 weeks before the season, and hopefully more than that, or in shape from another sport. If they can do that, they should be ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're asking the question now it's obviously too late for XC in 2025, and indoor track has already started and held the first meet of the season.

But outdoor track is in Spring.

That's why I didn't mention that season...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS has a XC competitive program and from the sports website it looks like a freshman girl needs to be able to run a 7:30 mile and boys 6:30. There is a time trial on the track the first few days of practice. The times go down for older ages groups. There is a caveat that if you are close- you can try again in a week.

The times are not posted for winter and spring track but I think it is top 8 finish in the time trials.

6:30 is pretty fast

it is not fast for a teenage boy who wants to run XC or track

Not sure why the eye roll other than you don't really know anything about mile times.

6:30 isn't slow, for sure, but nor is it "pretty fast". It's decent. Solid. Not "pretty fast".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our HS has a XC competitive program and from the sports website it looks like a freshman girl needs to be able to run a 7:30 mile and boys 6:30. There is a time trial on the track the first few days of practice. The times go down for older ages groups. There is a caveat that if you are close- you can try again in a week.

The times are not posted for winter and spring track but I think it is top 8 finish in the time trials.

Your HS XC coach is a loser. I graduated from a XC team that ran in 7A and won 4 state titles and our top 5 runners all ran Division 1, and three more could have but chose stronger academic schools like me. The program even had a runner win the New Balance national invitational in future years. Our schools had past Olympians.

We were no cut. We had fat kids that couldn't even run 3 miles the first day of practice. We had over 100 runners some years. The HC didn't care. He considered running a lifetime activity and transformative for people that could keep in up for their lives. Teaching stretching techniques, warming up and cool downs, pacing, running form were all things these kids used for the rest of their lives. How to deal with nagging injuries, hydration and nutrition as well.

One year, there was a huge budget shortfall and we only got one bus to meets. We still made it work with a carpool, and parent volunteers. The years where the team was huge, we had time trials and the best runners got to run, but everyone that showed up to 90% of the practices got to compete at our senior day meet and at least one invitational.

He made our team have a lot more impact to the school and community at large, vs. worrying about the placement of the C team in an invitational.

Yeah, the A Varsity team got the most individual coaching, especially for things like race tactics and weightlifting. But as an upper classman, I practically was an assistant coach for the "participant" runners that never scored points. We were most excited by a senior breaking the 25 minute barrier for the first time and grinding their times down over the season vs. the B team finishing 27th in an invitational.

Any school in this region can get an army of volunteers that ran at the collegiate level by asking any run club for free, so it isn't a staffing issue either. So it isn't a staffing issue. It is a lazy entitled coach that doesn't know what an XC team is really about.

Like it is so hard to a bunch of slower runners run 4 to 6 mile runs in groups on their own, let a portion attend meets and invitationals, and have them cheer on your teams.

[Anonymous]

An XC coach that has cuts and only focuses on the A varsity team is typically a douche that aspires to be a collegiate coach where results are the only thing that is important.

There isn't a typically a resource issue, it is just the coach's ego.

High school XC long has a traditional of being open to slower runners.

[Anonymous]

40 girls and 40 boys made the XC time cuts. That is a lot of kids and 70 of them are not getting recruited to run D1 with those times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS has a XC competitive program and from the sports website it looks like a freshman girl needs to be able to run a 7:30 mile and boys 6:30. There is a time trial on the track the first few days of practice. The times go down for older ages groups. There is a caveat that if you are close- you can try again in a week.

The times are not posted for winter and spring track but I think it is top 8 finish in the time trials.

6:30 is pretty fast

it is not fast for a teenage boy who wants to run XC or track

Not sure why the eye roll other than you don't really know anything about mile times.

6:30 isn't slow, for sure, but nor is it "pretty fast". It's decent. Solid. Not "pretty fast".

It’s ok for a kid that has never run before. The super stars are under 4:15 so 6:30 seems slow compared to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS has a XC competitive program and from the sports website it looks like a freshman girl needs to be able to run a 7:30 mile and boys 6:30. There is a time trial on the track the first few days of practice. The times go down for older ages groups. There is a caveat that if you are close- you can try again in a week.

The times are not posted for winter and spring track but I think it is top 8 finish in the time trials.

6:30 is pretty fast

it is not fast for a teenage boy who wants to run XC or track

Not sure why the eye roll other than you don't really know anything about mile times.

6:30 isn't slow, for sure, but nor is it "pretty fast". It's decent. Solid. Not "pretty fast".

It’s ok for a kid that has never run before. The super stars are under 4:15 so 6:30 seems slow compared to them.

6:30 is laughable for a high school distance runner. There are any numbers of boys in non-track/XC sports who can run a mile that fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS has a XC competitive program and from the sports website it looks like a freshman girl needs to be able to run a 7:30 mile and boys 6:30. There is a time trial on the track the first few days of practice. The times go down for older ages groups. There is a caveat that if you are close- you can try again in a week.

The times are not posted for winter and spring track but I think it is top 8 finish in the time trials.

6:30 is pretty fast

For a boy hoping to compete in high school track? It's incredibly slow. Boys should be able to run sub 5min miles to be competitive at a varsity meet. Girls need to run sub 6min to be competitive. Although to REALLY be competitive, a HS girl should be running around 5min.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS has a XC competitive program and from the sports website it looks like a freshman girl needs to be able to run a 7:30 mile and boys 6:30. There is a time trial on the track the first few days of practice. The times go down for older ages groups. There is a caveat that if you are close- you can try again in a week.

The times are not posted for winter and spring track but I think it is top 8 finish in the time trials.

6:30 is pretty fast

it is not fast for a teenage boy who wants to run XC or track

Not sure why the eye roll other than you don't really know anything about mile times.

6:30 isn't slow, for sure, but nor is it "pretty fast". It's decent. Solid. Not "pretty fast".

For a girl

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS has a XC competitive program and from the sports website it looks like a freshman girl needs to be able to run a 7:30 mile and boys 6:30. There is a time trial on the track the first few days of practice. The times go down for older ages groups. There is a caveat that if you are close- you can try again in a week.

The times are not posted for winter and spring track but I think it is top 8 finish in the time trials.

6:30 is pretty fast

For a boy hoping to compete in high school track? It's incredibly slow. Boys should be able to run sub 5min miles to be competitive at a varsity meet. Girls need to run sub 6min to be competitive. Although to REALLY be competitive, a HS girl should be running around 5min.

Exactly. A boy who runs a 5:00 mile in a varsity track meet will get destroyed.

[Anonymous]

There were 12 girls in FCPS last year that ran under 5 minutes for the track 1600