Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What time is she expected to run? We need a starting point. Is below 10mins/mile the norm?

For freshman- our HS coach wants girls to be able to run under a 7minute mile. There is some wiggle room but that is the expectation. There is one returning girl who runs under 5 minutes. I know Robinson HS has 3-4 girls that run under 5 minutes.

I guess they can do that running as fast as possible for one mile…on a track?

The top XC HS runner in the country was at 17:31 in the national championships…which is much closer to 6 minutes than 5 minutes per mile.

On December 7, 2024 Jane Hedengren ran a 16:32.7 at Nike Cross Nationals (NXN), which is the national championship for high school cross country. A time of 17:31 was outside of the top 100 high school runners last season.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is thinking of joining the cross country team at her large public HS. She has not trained at all. Will she be accepted and will it be ok if she is slow/walking at first?

This is school dependent. You can reach out to the coach via email. However, fall sports started on Monday.

My daughter goes to a large FCPS HS and there is a tryout for boys and girls cross country. It consists of a 1.5 mile run and there are standards each grade must meet to make the team. I have heard that other schools have no cuts.

Yeah, but just because the op’s daughter might be walking part of the way during try-outs doesn’t mean she is not going to make the cut.

Anonymous wrote:We aren't in the DMV, but things are going great so far. 2 weeks into the official season (Captain's practices were much of the summer) and there has been one internal meet, which was basically a time trial. We have separate girls and boys teams that are usually between 50-75 kids each. It's quite the program! First official meet is this weekend.

This is great to hear -- have a great season!

We aren't in the DMV, but things are going great so far. 2 weeks into the official season (Captain's practices were much of the summer) and there has been one internal meet, which was basically a time trial. We have separate girls and boys teams that are usually between 50-75 kids each. It's quite the program! First official meet is this weekend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why hasn’t she been running all summer? It’s incredible that people think they can just go join a team with no skill.

It used to be that school based sports were where you learned to be better at your sport. Now you are expected to have been doing your sport since elementary if you want to make the HS team. I dont think XC needs to have such a high bar for entry since it's the cheapest sport for the school to operate.

Yeah, but I mean, if she isn’t a runner in another sport (soccer etc) and she is interested in this for 9th grade, it does seem like she should have been running this summer. Nothing more. But her endurance would already have improved a ton after 3 months of running 3x a week. Speed etc may not matter depending on the school but it will be demotivating to have to walk so much if others are running.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS's first meet is not until the 6th but the kids already know who will be running there based on the time trial. For different reasons, our coach is terrible too

Which meet is your team going to? It's sad that so many schools don't take the time to make sure the coaches are qualified. Our season is going to be long and difficult with our coach. I wish our old coach would come back full time.

Monroe-Parker invitational at Burke Lake course

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What time is she expected to run? We need a starting point. Is below 10mins/mile the norm?

For freshman- our HS coach wants girls to be able to run under a 7minute mile. There is some wiggle room but that is the expectation. There is one returning girl who runs under 5 minutes. I know Robinson HS has 3-4 girls that run under 5 minutes.

I guess they can do that running as fast as possible for one mile…on a track?

The top XC HS runner in the country was at 17:31 in the national championships…which is much closer to 6 minutes than 5 minutes per mile.

1. of course. A girl who can run one 4:50 mile cannot run 3.1 4:50 miles.

2. XC courses vary a lot and are harder to run on than tracks. And championship meets are typically at not-easy courses.

Anonymous wrote:Our HS's first meet is not until the 6th but the kids already know who will be running there based on the time trial. For different reasons, our coach is terrible too

Which meet is your team going to? It's sad that so many schools don't take the time to make sure the coaches are qualified. Our season is going to be long and difficult with our coach. I wish our old coach would come back full time.

Anonymous wrote:Our NOVA HS XC team has like 200 kids. Technically it is open to all / no cut as long as you work hard and show up to practices, but I think they actually had to turn people away this year due to the numbers. They have them divided into different groups based on their times / skill level and yes, only the top group goes to some of the competitions.

200! That's wild.

I live in a different state, but for reference, there are about 2,800 kids in my DS's school, and about 18 of them do XC. (Bad coach -- I mostly blame him.)

Our NOVA HS XC team has like 200 kids. Technically it is open to all / no cut as long as you work hard and show up to practices, but I think they actually had to turn people away this year due to the numbers. They have them divided into different groups based on their times / skill level and yes, only the top group goes to some of the competitions.

Our HS's first meet is not until the 6th but the kids already know who will be running there based on the time trial. For different reasons, our coach is terrible too

How is the XC season going for many of you FCPS students?

Our season is starting off weak. We still have the same bad coaching. The coach only cares about the boys team even though the girls have a stronger program. And the coach shows up late all the time but is now punishing the team if they are late. Not a good example.

Any suggestions?

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is thinking of joining the cross country team at her large public HS. She has not trained at all. Will she be accepted and will it be ok if she is slow/walking at first?

This is school dependent. You can reach out to the coach via email. However, fall sports started on Monday.

My daughter goes to a large FCPS HS and there is a tryout for boys and girls cross country. It consists of a 1.5 mile run and there are standards each grade must meet to make the team. I have heard that other schools have no cuts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why hasn’t she been running all summer? It’s incredible that people think they can just go join a team with no skill.

It used to be that school based sports were where you learned to be better at your sport. Now you are expected to have been doing your sport since elementary if you want to make the HS team. I dont think XC needs to have such a high bar for entry since it's the cheapest sport for the school to operate.

At our HS- the top runners didn’t come into the HS as top runners but they were top athletes in other sports. Every HS around here has similar athletes who were excelling in other sports and found success at cross country. It is not like these top runners have been on a club running team since they were 4 but a lot of them have been doing club swim, soccer, lacrosse, etc….

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why hasn’t she been running all summer? It’s incredible that people think they can just go join a team with no skill.

It used to be that school based sports were where you learned to be better at your sport. Now you are expected to have been doing your sport since elementary if you want to make the HS team. I dont think XC needs to have such a high bar for entry since it's the cheapest sport for the school to operate.

It's rare that there is a high bar to entry. I think some parents here don't know what they're talking about. I'm the one who said it varies by school. Literally the only way to know is to ask the coach.