Decker wins title, Dutch men gain national cross country berth

Central College

Central College

PELLA—Fueled by an NCAA Division III Central regional title for Cole Decker (senior, Des Moines, Dowling Catholic HS), the Central College men’s cross country team secured its fourth straight trip to the national meet Saturday.

The 20th-ranked Dutch get one of the two automatic qualifying berths from the regional for next Saturday’s national meet at Winneconne, Wis. Competing on its home course, Central tied for second in the 29-team meet and won a tiebreaker with No. 19 Loras College for the national berth. Loras had edged Central by four points to win the Iowa Conference crown at Dubuque Oct. 31. The Duhawks are still in good position to pick up one of the 16 at-large berths that will be announced Sunday.

“Any time you can get to the national championships, that’s a big deal for a program,” said coach Joe Dunham.

Meanwhile, the Central women were 16th in a 30-team field.

In the men’s race, No. 4-ranked St. Olaf (Minn.) cruised to its fourth consecutive regional team title with 62 points. Central and Loras both finished with 127 points, while league foes Wartburg and Luther took fourth and fifth with 171 and 188 points, respectively.

Back-to-back conference champion Decker put last year’s 20th-place regional finish behind him, winning the individual title in the 198-runner field. He completed the 8,000-meter A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex course in 25:05, 10 seconds ahead of second-place Charles Corbett of Wis.-Superior. Decker has now earned all-region honors all four years at Central.

“Cole ran a great race today,” said Dunham. “For him to win, and look as good as he did doing it, is something special. It was a great performance in his last race at home.”

Three other Dutch runners join Decker as all-region honorees by placing in the top 35. Sophomore Mark Fairley (Dubuque) finished 20th in 26:11, junior Isaac Steffensmeier (Fort Madison) was 27th in 26:22 and sophomore Tanner Rathje (Marion/Linn-Mar HS) ran 26:26 for 29th place.

Sophomore Jon Specht (Dubuque/Hempstead HS) was the fifth Central runner, running 26:57 for 50th. Sophomore Nick Guzman (Fort Madison) finished 108th in 28:13 and sophomore Taylor Donnor (Dubuque) was 109th in 28:14.

Central battled back after a sluggish start.

“I was really proud of the way the guys fought coming down the stretch,” Dunham said. “They didn’t look their best during parts of the race but they overcame that at the end.”

He knows his team will still have to perform better to gain a top finish at the national meet.

“Our performance was a little less than optimal today,” he said. “We’re disappointed we didn’t run a little bit better. We just have to reset and get ready for nationals.”

The national meet is hosted by Wis.-Oshkosh, with the men’s race starting at 12:30 p.m.

Dutch women take 16th—In the women’s race it was St. Thomas (Minn.) taking the team title with a score of 118. The Dutch were 16th with 446 points.

“I thought our women competed hard today,” said Dunham. “It’s a tough atmosphere and environment to run in.”

Individual champion, Carleton junior Ruth Steinke, successfully defended her regional title. She completed the 6,000-meter course in 21:45.

Sophomore Holly McKinney (Saint Charles/Interstate 35-Truro HS) gained all-region honors for Central, placing 13th in the 200-runner field. Her time of 22:55 was almost a full minute faster than she ran at last year’s regional meet.

“I was very happy with Holly’s race today,” said Dunham. “She has progressed so much over the season and will only continue to get better.”

Sophomore Evie Kammeyer (Urbandale) took 74th in 24:21, junior Andie Arthofer (Dubuque) was 100th in 24:56, senior Molly Bramble (Waukee) was 120th in 25:14 and junior Cassidy Gornick (Norwalk) finished 139th in 25:42. The sixth and seventh Dutch runners were juniors Kasey Wiedmaier (Indianola) and Leaha Earnest (Hedrick/Pekin HS). They finished 141st and 147th in times of 25:46 and 25:56, respectively.

Dunham believes Saturday’s effort can spark future success

“This has been a great season for the women,” he said. “We are going to build on this and get ready for the track season.”

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