I am a female junior in high school looking to be recruited for D1 track and field for the year 2026. I’ve emailed a few coaches and attended recruiting webinars but still have questions about the process.
First of all, I primarily run the 400 and 800. The coaches I’ve emailed have sent their recruitment standards and I am on their “radar”.
How often do coaches look into my season and running career?
Do coaches just say this to get rid of me or are they actually interested?
What do track sprint coaches generally look for when recruiting students?
What extra things can I do to up my chances of getting recruited, aside from running faster and excelling academically?
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If you haven’t gotten any traction beyond short response emails, you probably need to cast a wider net. I know some kids that had over 100 schools on their initial lists. It will narrow as the process goes along. Look at tfrrs.com at results for the schools you have interest in. Are you close to any of the times they are running? If not, you may need to look at less competitive programs.
Junior year track times are very important for recruiting. Keep updating the coaches via email if you hit any new PRs.
It can be a long process with lots of ups and downs. Keep at it! Good luck to you!
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OP, if you share your event times , posters will be able to better help you.
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Get test scores and provide/remind in every email. This is one way you can be ahead of other recruits. Fall of junior year to have scores in hand is not uncommon.
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We have some experience with T&F recruiting. From our experience, for T&F in which coaches can see the times online, vs a more subjective sport where they may need to or would like to see the athlete in action, coaches at many programs will typically find you based on your times or respond positively if you are a strong candidate for recruitment.
For T&F, the # of slots that a coach has is often limited. I believe that it may only be a couple of slots for middle distance, 1-2 for sprinters, etc. However the T&F teams do have people on the team that got accepted without coaches support and are not on scholarship. A coach once told us at a higher level D1 program that the scholarships are reserved for All Americans, and to come in with scholarship money you would have to be the type of athlete that could score points right away at meets.
Are you looking for T&F to help get you into a high academic school in which the coach has some slots available such as with the Ivies or NESCAC? Or more content to participate and be part of a team?
If you are set on certain schools or types of schools which is fine, I would continue to focus on primarily those schools and keep in touch with the coach. If you go to campus for a tour make sure you reach out to the coach to let them know you will be on campus and would like to touch base with them. Coaches will often be accommodating.
Other than the above input I do not have any suggestions other than as you mention running faster and excelling academically, or as @Momofthree24 mentioned to cast a wider net.
Good luck!
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I concur about casting a wide net. Many D1 coaches don’t even know yet how (or if) the new NCAA rules are going to impact their programs, or if their school is ‘opting in’ to revenue sharing. Some believe that T&F will suffer cuts and de-investment in their programs, and that it will also trickle down to schools that don’t opt in to revenue sharing. Time will tell, but for now, some coaches might be slowing their roll on recruiting.
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Congrats on getting started with the process. That’s an important step.
I agree with casting a wide net. It’s fine to have a few preferred schools where you think you’ll fit. But you’re much better off building on that by finding other schools where the academics, athletics, finances, geography would fit.
Not sure of your times but I wouldn’t restrict the search to D1 unless you’re a good fit at the top tier programs. There are a lot of D2/3 programs that are good fits for many athletes.
Contact those coaches by filling out the online recruiting forms and following up immediately with an email to the coach. Follow the team feed on IG.
Subject line of your email should include your class and PRs and academic stats (gpa or test score): ‘26 400-57, 800-2:10, 3.9 GPA.
Body of email: a few sentences with your athletic marks and highlights, a sentence on your academics, include links to athletic.net or milesplit profile, then indicate a desire to learn more about the program and the recruiting process. Ask if there’s a good time to chat, and include your phone#.
Programs vary in how they deal with 4/8 types. Some have a dedicated group and others have them shuffle between the mid-d 8/15 group and the 2/4 group. There are also conferences where your skill set is in higher demand. For example, Ivy League indoors has a 4,5,8,1k and finishes with 4x4, 4x8, DMR. That’s a lot of 400-800ers.
I’d keep updating coaches as performances warrant but if you’re not getting many or any personalized responses from coaches in a particular conference you might be targeting too high. Usually you know you’re targeted correctly when they start texting you on occasion. For some this doesn’t happen until spring or summer.
ETA: one thing that has really changed recruiting in the last few years is the transfer portal. The top programs can recruit NCAA qualifiers instead of HS Juniors now. It has changed things a bit.
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Could you share your PRs? There are a lot of folks here who would be able to help you a lot more. Additionally, could you please share your GPA, some course rigor, highest SAT, ACT, PSAT or whatever if you have it?
It’s up to you to keep updating the coaches and staying in touch on a regular basis. Whenever you have an update to share, be it athletic or academic you can share a short note.
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My daughter went through the process last year and signed D1 Ivy. Agree with all above. We have pretty good knowledge on Ivys, some academic D1s, and some D3s. Feel free to message Qs
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Thank you for your response!! My PRs are 1:05.57 (400m), 29.03 (200m), and 2:44.60 (800m). However, there were some errors regarding my 800m time—it should have been around 2:38-39. I’ve been discussing this with my coach about this season’s goal times, and we both are aiming for a sub-60 PR this year. I have a 3.615 GPA and am taking 4 AP classes this year so that will raise.
So what I am seeing is that your times are not recruitable for D1 track. There are some D3 schools that would take you as a walk on, but I don’t think they would take you as a recruit. General advice for recruiting is as follows (for current juniors:)
D1
200m: under 26.0
400m: under 59.5
800m: under 2:20
D3 (competitive schools such as UAA and NESCAC)
200m: under 27.5
400m: under 1:02
800m: under 2:30
D3 (less competitive)
200m: under 28.0
400m: under 1:05
800m: under 2:38
These are school dependent, but this is general advice.
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Your times right now are not really recruitable for D1 (or high D3), so there’s not much more you can do now. When you get better times this winter/spring, I would update the coaches of the schools you’re interested in. If you do get your 400 time below a minute or your 200 around 27 sec, that would make you competitive for D3.
Agree with others that you should do a deep dive on TFRRS to get an idea of the times that are being run by current team members at schools in which you are interested. I also agree that the changes to D1 roster sizes and the transfer portal are making it much more difficult to get recruited to D1.
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OP, do you run XC? Often strong 400m and 800m runners find they do well in XC- and that can be a gateway to track and field. A lot of schools are looking for more XC runners.
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I suggest you set aside recruiting for now and focus your attention on your coursework and your goals for the spring season. Your times aren’t in recruitable range right now and recruiting is just a distraction.
See where you are this summer and go from there. Larger schools have club programs that might be an option for you.
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I suggest editing your times from the exact times listed to 1:05 mid, 29 low, and 2:44 mid. Very specific times can allow you to be identified on various track time databases.
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Seconding this opinion. Enjoy your seasons and do your best to run well. Plenty of athletes improve quite a bit during their junior year, but coaches really don’t want to hear what you think you can do, or what you are hoping for. Most will tell you to reach out when you run those times.
This is a good time to be thinking about what you are looking for in a college, and come spring you can see if you are in range for running at some of the schools that are of interest to you.
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Just echoing the good advice from others here about continuing to focus your attention on your coursework, the schools that are a good fit especially without participating in a sport and working hard and enjoying your spring season.
For T&F recruiting, for many competitive teams the coach only has a few recruits at each event, so they are typically looking at top T&F athletes. For the better D1 programs and Ivy’s, the top recruits are often HS state champ caliber athletes or even All Americans.
As your times improve, you can reach out again and coaches may find you as well.
Keep up the good work and good luck, I am sure it will all work out for you!
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As some others have mentioned, you have a ways to go to be competitive at the D1 and top D3 levels but you are still improving and have a bit of time. As a point of reference here are the HS numbers for one of the 2024 Ivy recruits that I know very well.
200 26.6 ish
400 58 ish
800 2:11.5 ish
mile 5:12 ish
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That’s good info. And just to clarify for others: that’s likely an 800 meter runner with 1500 upside. It’s not the 27/58 that got her recruited (except that those show the speed is there to compete at the longer distances).
I’m sure you’re already aware, just didn’t want OP or others to get the impression that 26.6/58 200/400 meter runners are getting recruited to Ivies. It’d be more like sub 25/56 for 200/400 specialists.
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