MountainPack said:
But Alessia Potts is a 10:11 3200m runner in her Jr season. She's trending towards 10:00 for her Sr season. she'll be a top10 recruit. And I agree Madeline Dorsch would be a great class of 2028 recruit.
Let's say we recruit 3 "top tier" recruits this cycle. Are you suggesting we should pursue times much faster than 10:11, say sub 10:00? The pool of runners is currently 3 to draw upon, Avery Lowen, Blair Bartlett, and Ruby Ihmels.
Don't get me wrong, like I said, both are solid high Div 1 recruits. I'm happy that UNC was the school for them. You know how it is with Carolina kids … >70% grow up dreaming of wearing baby blue. I simply refuse to get disappointed about Carolina kids chasing childhood dreams.
Kasten's footspeed is pretty nice and her 3000/3200 times are honestly not that much slower than Potts, who appears to have truly focused on getting her 3000/3200 times down in a few races over the last 1-2 years. Both are on nice trajectories, putting themselves in a great position to go just about anywhere they want.
On the XC course however, neither have impressed me a whole lot, with Dorsch and Estep blowing their doors off when it mattered. We need women who want to come be a part of our culture and tradition in XC, with XC and their educations being the highest priorities and everything else getting in line after that.
Roster limit rules are creeping closer to truly impacting our roster size. With Grace, Hannah, Brooke, Kaylie et al done after this season and Angelina, Kate, Jojo and Fleur done after next season, we've got to bring in some top dogs if we want to continue chasing championships without recruiting East Africans.
Bartlett would be a huge get. Ihmels too. We are in the mix with others too.
