Help with college search...

[Tyler]

I've been trying to help one of my former runners, Anthony Armstrong, in his college search. He's got 2 state titles under his belt and prs of 8:57 and 4:10 for 3200m and 1600m, and he's being recruited hard by a lot of schools. Anthony's said he wants to run in the mountains, but preferably not somewhere terribly cold. And he's interested in studying business.

So far, Oklahoma St and NAU seem to be working the hardest to get him. Colorado has just entered the mix, so we'll see how their offer turns out, but he might hate training there in the winter.

I would like input from others' experiences/impressions of these schools. Good/bad? What are some other programs you might recommend looking into? Oregon is out of the question -- he's not interested. And it sounds like grades would be an issue with Stanford. Who might we be overlooking?

Particularly I'm interested in anybody's impressions of OSU. I have my doubts about them.

[Jon Allen]

Colorado just swept the PAC-12 cross country for men and women.  And it's not that bad in winter- snow on the roads melts fast.  Wetmore is a tough but good coach, too.

[Rob Murphy]

What are your doubts about OSU?

[Tyler]

Jon - Well if I could pick a school for him, it would be Colorado! I'm always awe struck at how much Wetmore's athletes improve year in and year out, no matter who he has on his team. Good to hear the weather isn't awful, he might like to hear that.

Rob - On the surface, OSU looks amazing. Obviously they've performed ridiculously well at NCAAs since what's his face took over. But they also throw an equally ridiculous amount of money into recruiting, and I can't help wondering if their success is because Smith is a brilliant coach or a brilliant recruiter. He has two assistants whose primary responsibilities are to recruit, and they do their jobs really well. No other school in the country has spent as much time trying to get Anthony as OSU. It's amazing what Smith has set up over there -- the track team IS the cross team. He must be taking nearly all of the track scholarships and using them on runners. You combine two charismatic, young recruiters like Bobby Curtis and Sean McCabe with the number of scholarships they must have, and it's no wonder they have a stacked roster. It's a well-oiled machine.

But I look a little deeper and I see things that worry me. Fernandez injured for a huge part of college. Maybe an outlier, maybe he's prone to it, but I think Anthony can be injury prone too, which is why he's been relatively low mileage through high school. Girma Mecheso ran 28:26 at Auburn, transferred to OSU and has been injured 3 out of the 5 seasons he's been there. Shane Moskowitz, who ran the fastest 5k ever run at the Washington State XC course, only managed 25:33 for 8k his freshman year. And hasn't improved his track times from high school. Colby Lowe ran 13:57 as a freshman, and has only improved that to 13:42 and 28:45. Saying "only" is relative, of course. But I see that and wonder, why isn't he running 13:30 and 28:00? He's a huge talent. And unlike German, he has been healthy all through college.

I could go on, but what it all comes down to is that underneath the surface, I worry that OSU doesn't have the tools to develop talent. Anthony isn't getting a lot of guidance anywhere else, and I don't want to give him bad advice, so I'm just wanting to see other people's impressions. Am I off base? I would hate to see him go somewhere and only run 13:42. If that's all his college career comes to, then something will have gone really wrong.

[Steve P]

I don't know a lot of details, but I have heard that University of New Mexico has a great team and has been quite successful. They have mountains and semi-moderate climate. But I think it mostly depends on preferences beyond running that he has. Does he want to be close to family. What kind of academic goals he has, etc.

[Dave Holt]

As an alum - and having a few of my runners head there - I am just going to throw this out there...
Southern Utah!
Awesome mountain climate in Cedar, snowy and chilly, but not horrid (as the winters are shorter it being more southern than many other schools) and only 1/2 hour away from always amazing climates in St. George.
As a high school coach, I have heard of Anthony and read a lot about how well he has done.  The program at SUU is quite strong (5th at NCAA mountain region this season just behind New Mexico - with the #2 guy, Cam Levins; and another NCAA qualifier Nate Jewkes; and a host of strong young runners, American Fork's Austin West was the big recruit this past year and Pine View's Trevor Thompson, both multiple State Champs in Utah).
And the school is quite strong in a lot of its programs and often ranks as one of the top 10 universities in some of those Top 10 college things that you see everywhere.
Anyway... it may be a long shot, but if Anthony is interested at all shoot me an email and I will get you in touch with the coaching staff.

[Paul Petersen]

I was thinking Southern Utah as well. Good elevation, good climate, good program.

Although I do love Flagstaff. I almost went to grad school there, just because I wanted to live there so much.

[Tyler]

I don't know a whole lot about SUU, other than that they always seem to have a runner or two way, way up. Any idea what they've got in scholarships?

[Dave Holt]

Tyler shoot me a private message or email and I'll get you in contact with the coach.