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Devil Men Top Ten at NCAA National Championships
By Dennis Young
(Winneconne, Wisc.) - The Dickinson College men's cross-country team had its best race of the season on Saturday and was rewarded with a 10th place finish at the 2011 NCAA National Championships, the second best in school history. Senior Dylan Straughan (Bethesda, Md./Bethesda-Chevy Chase) led the Devils, as his 33rd place finish made him the third cross-country All-American (given to the top 35) that Dickinson has ever had.
Straughan's race- his fourth national meet- signified full circle for the captain since coming in dead last place at nationals two years ago. Since then, Dylan had risen to the status of perhaps the best runner in Division III to never make All-American. At last spring's outdoor conference meet, the 5000 meters was billed as a showdown between the 2011 national champion in the steeplechase (Kent Pecora '11) and the 2010 national champion in cross country (Haverford's Anders Hulleberg). They finished a well-beaten second and third behind Straughan's meet record. To make a long story short, today was a long time coming.
Straughan executed beautifully on the pancake-flat golf course, moving up from 69th at the mile to 47th at two miles to his eventual 33rd place finish. (And as an added bonus, his time of 24:44 was a personal best). But his teammates moved up even more dramatically over the final stages of the race. More stats on the race are still yet to be processed, but we do know that as late as four miles in, the Red Devils were in 14th.
Senior Ted MacDonald (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) passed 99 people from the mile mark to the finish. And in his first nationals ever, junior Andrew Fine (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) ran like a poised veteran, passing 56 people in those last four miles. Easily the most spectacular finish of the day was by sophomore Ryan Steinbock (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley). Steinbock was in 182nd at the mile, and solidly moved up to 163rd, four miles in. In the violent closeout that has become the signature "Bock" portion of the race, he passed 47 people in the fifth and final mile to finish 116th.
While one runner's stats never paint the full team picture, had Ryan only passed as few as five runners in that last mile, the Devils would have finished 15th. Classmate Henry Mynatt (Lake Forest, IL/Lake Forest) ran a perfectly planned race: 187th at the mile, 157 at 2 miles, 149 at 3, 131 at 4, and 110th across the finish line to close out team scoring. MacDonald's time of 25:10, Fine's 25:18,and Steinbock's 25:24 were all large personal bests.
Finally, a brief note on one of the two displacers. Your author was privy to a conversation with senior Dave Breen (Bolton, Mass./Nashoba) at the beginning of the season in which Breen mentioned that one of his goals for the season was to break 26:00. Today, he was 202nd overall (improving on last year's finish) in a time of… 25:59.34.
