Central’s Steffensmeier wins league cross country honor

Central College

PELLA — Central College’s Issac Steffensmeier (sophomore, Fort Madison) was tabbed as the Iowa Conference men’s cross country runner of the week Tuesday.

Steffensmeier ran a career-best 25:43.2 last week at the Central Invitational en route to his first collegiate individual title. In the 127-runner field, he bested the runner-up, teammate Cole Decker (junior, Des Moines, Dowling), by 3.7 seconds. Steffensmeier and Decker led the Dutch to the title of their season-opening seven-team meet, helping the team earn a score of 25.

This was Steffensmeier’s first competitive collegiate race on the course, as he did not compete in the 2013 Central Invitational. However, he did earn all-Central Regional and all-Iowa Conferene honors at the end of the 2013 season and won Central’s Newcomer of the Year Award. Steffensmeier and the rest of the Dutch runners return to action Sept. 20 at the Gil Dodds Invitational in Wheaton, Illinois.