How the levels work
Each conference publishes a performance list of its athletes' best marks every season. A Target mark would place in the top 8 at that conference, where the meet is scored. Recruit is the 15th-best mark and Walk-On the 25th. Lists include wind-aided marks, so sprint and jump levels run slightly fast.
Junior colleges are ranked on national lists (NJCAA Division I, NJCAA Division III and NWAC), so their places are scaled to the same depth as a 12-team conference. Standards come from the 2026 outdoor lists on TFRRS. Programs that publish their own standards will show those first. California community colleges aren't on TFRRS yet.
Picking the three marks
Target is the 8th-best mark on the list, Recruit the 15th and Walk-On the 25th. If a list has 16 to 24 marks, Walk-On is the last mark on it. A Recruit or Walk-On mark more than 40% worse than the Target is left out, because it usually means the list thins out into marks no coach is recruiting.
Junior colleges
Junior colleges don't compete in small conferences, so their lists are national. A place on a national list is scaled down to what it would be in a 12-team conference, so a junior-college Target means the same depth as any other Target.
Events covered
Men: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 110m Hurdles, 400m Hurdles, High Jump, Pole Vault, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Shot Put, Discus, Hammer, Javelin. Women: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 100m Hurdles, 400m Hurdles, High Jump, Pole Vault, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Shot Put, Discus, Hammer, Javelin. High school 1600m, 3200m, 300m hurdles and boys' 39" hurdles are converted to their college events when you search.
Wind and altitude
Performance lists include wind-aided marks, so sprint, hurdle and horizontal-jump levels run slightly fast. Marks from altitude meets use the altitude-converted mark that TFRRS ranks each list by.
School-published standards
When a program publishes its own recruiting standards, those replace its conference's levels for that event, marked "Official standard".
Coverage gaps
108 schools have no conference on file, so they have no levels yet. California community colleges aren't on TFRRS, so they aren't covered. Levels shown are for the 2026 outdoor season.