Fairley punches ticket to NCAA Cross Country Championships

Central College

NORTHFIELD, MINN. — Junior Mark Fairley (Dubuque) qualified for the NCAA Division III Men’s Cross Country Championships after a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Division III Central Region meet Saturday.

Central College finished seventh in the 32-team field with 221 points, Loras College won the 8,000-meter race with 101 points. Wartburg College was second with 117 points for the second automatic berth at the national meet. Pending the at-large selections announced on Sunday, the Dutch will not qualify for a fifth-straight national meet as a team.

“We are all really proud of Mark and his accomplishment of qualifying as an individual for the NCAA Championships,” said coach Joe Dunham. “He has had a really good season and this was a great race.”

Fairley led Central in 25 minutes, 36.4 seconds to place fourth in the 207-man field. Tanner Rathje (junior, Marion, Linn-Mar) finished 21st with 26:02.9, Isaac Steffensmeier (senior, Fort Madison) followed in 22nd with 26:03.8, Jon Specht (junior, Dubuque, Hempstead) placed 82nd with 26:59.8, Kyle Pape (sophomore, Dubuque, Wahlert Catholic) finished 92nd with 27:12.6, Taylor Donner (junior, Dubuque) and Jordan Toomey (sophomore, Runnells, Southeast Polk) placed 98th with 27:17.2 and 131st with 27:59.5, respectively.

Although the team likely will not advance, Dunham was pleased with the effort from his team.

“This meet was not the result we were looking for,” he said. “It certainly was not for a lack of effort from our guys. They really battled hard and I was really proud of their efforts. I felt like each of the guys ran smart races. It just wasn’t our day.”

Fairley will compete at the national race Saturday for the third time in his career. The championship race is held at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky. The course also held the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in 2015.