Dutch men start indoor track season in national computer rankings

Central Dutch Athletics

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — The Central College men’s track and field squad came in at No. 19 in the USTFCCCA Division III Indoor Track and Field Preseason National Team Computer Rankings released Thursday.

Coming off a 37th place finish at last year’s NCAA Division III Indoor Championships, Coach Joe Dunham returns a trio of outdoor All-Americans for his 10th season. Central has no returning indoor national qualifiers.

Mark Fairley (senior, Dubuque) placed second nationally in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, which is not contested indoors. Senior Ryan Kruse (St. Clair, Minn.) qualified for the decathlon outdoors in 2017, and has already recorded in 4,904 in the indoor heptathlon. Will Daniels (sophomore, Geneseo, Ill.) just missed the All-American podium in the high jump outdoors and is also a contender in the heptathlon.

The defending national champions from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse open at No. 1. The top-five also includes Rowan University (N.J.), the University of Dubuque, Christopher Newport University (Va.) and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

A trip to Lincoln, Neb. for the Prairie Wolf Invitational on Friday, January 19 is the next competition on the schedule for the Dutch.