Charles Bolinger IV '11 Recruiting Profile

I am a 6'1", 161 lb rising senior from Bowie, MD. I started running Cross Country and Track (competitively) with the varsity team at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt, Maryland (ERHS) my freshman year. I am a student in the highly competitive Science and Technology program at ERHS. My freshman year, ERHS won the Outdoor State Championship. We also came in 3rd in the Indoor Championships. My sophomore year, I was selected for the Gazette All-County Cross Country team. During my junior year, as the team captain and top ERHS Cross Country runner, I won and led my ERHS team to winning the Prince Georges' County Championship and the Maryland 4A South Regional Championship. I finished 15th in Marylands's 4A Cross Country Championship, which was held on one of the East Coast's most challenging high school courses -- Hereford County High School, Bullrun. During the indoor season, I ran at Nike Nationals, where I won my heat with a 1:57.56. During the outdoor season, I ran at Meade Stampede, where I won the 800M with a 1:56.56. I beat the meet record. I ran a .48 third leg of the 4x4 at the Penn Relays. At the end of the season in the MD 4a State Championship, I finished in third in the 800 with a time of 1:56.24. I was chosen for the All-County Outdoor first team. My personal records are 1:55.75 , which I ran at the 4A Outdoor Regional Championship, finishing 1st in the 800; 4:25.6, which I ran at the Prince Georges County Championship, finishing 2nd in the 1600; 10:15 in the 3200 and 16:36 in the 5k. My first preference is to attend a medium size school in a surburban area. However, I am not eliminating the possibility of attending either a small or large school. So far, I have focused on schools in Maryland, North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. I am really looking for a school with great academics and a good engineering or civil engineering/internship program. I have a lot of heart and I believe in hard work and perseverance. I want to be a significant contributor to the team I join. The terms "giving up" and "can't" aren't in my vocabulary. I care a lot for my teammates and want success for them. It is important to me to join a team with similar characteristics. My future goals include running at the toughest level of competition in college; being one of the top runners on my college team my freshman year; and finally being selected to try out for the 2016 Olympic team.