Elites Who Ran D3

Melissa White

Anthony Gallo

)&%)(&!! wrote:

correct that, Paranya ran for Haverford

Also Seamus McElligott of Haverford. Top runner in college and ran very fast post-collegiate times. I think he was a DI All American; this was back when the DIII champ got to run at DI nats. Died tragically at 29.

Bill Rodgers didn't run D3 because D3 didn't exist until 1973. Rodgers ran for Wes in the '60s.

Joan Benoit, Bowden, wasn't half bad.

ummmmmmm wrote:

Also Seamus McElligott of Haverford. Top runner in college and ran very fast post-collegiate times. I think he was a DI All American; this was back when the DIII champ got to run at DI nats. Died tragically at 29.

He ran on the US team for world XC championships.

Another D3 who went on to elite running accomplishments I've not seen mentioned yet is Clive Terlong from Lincoln.

He was a two time Olympian, and won the World Indoor Championship at 800m in 1995. I think he's coaching at U Conn now.

Sarah Groff, Middlebury College, finished 4th in the Olympic Triathlon this year. I belive she mostly swam in college.

Also, Sebastian Junger, Weslyan, author of the Perfect Storm, might have dipped just under 2:20 for the marathon.

)&%)(&!! wrote:

Arcata wrote:

Conover ran at Humboldt when they went from DIII to DII. I think he also managed be one of the few athletes to be All American in all three divisions in XC.

Danny Grimes too? Made a WC team in the marathon (Rome) and ran some pretty fast road times. Or was he a little older than Conover?

Conover and Grimes were teammates at HSU from about 79-83. Grimes might have been a year ahead of Conover, but they were together for at least 3 years (if not 4 since Grimes was running track in '83 which would have been Conover's 4th year.

Dan Held, UW-EC

Made a few worlds teams in the Marathon and XC

Hanson's Mike Morgan (1:04/2:14) ran at Nebraska Wesleyan. can't remember Mike's HS PRs, but I know he never won any D3 national titles (though he did get AA in the 10K at least once).

Josh Moen (who I haven't seen in any results lately but ran 28:30/1:04) was a multiple-time D3 champ. I recall someone saying he never broke 10:00 for 2 miles in HS.

Not sure if he has been mentioned...

Dave Davis

mulchlil wrote:

Not sure if he has been mentioned...

Dave Davis

This is the guy I was thinking about in an earlier post! He ran on Alberto's marathon development team.

Does Jan Cado from NCC count? He was an elite before he competed DIII, but he certainly was both.

He won a bronze medal at the World Championships in 1983 in the triple jump. Later, he defected to the US and attended North Central, leading them to multiple national championships.

http://northcentralcardinals.com/sports/2009/2/18/MTRACK_0218090129.aspx?id=90

I went to the same high school as Mack, he didn't even run till his junior year of high school

Second place wrote:

Sarah Groff, Middlebury College, finished 4th in the Olympic Triathlon this year. I belive she mostly swam in college.

Also, Sebastian Junger, Weslyan, author of the Perfect Storm, might have dipped just under 2:20 for the marathon.

Junger was pretty good at the local level, not an elite runner. Around 31:00 on the roads.

Joan Benoit went to Bowdoin. Don Bowden might have been the first American to run a sub 4 minute mile but that was not enough to have a college named after him.

Mark Robinson went to Catholic University and was ranked 4th in the US by TFN in the 800 in 1974. I think his best was 1:46:00. Catholic has been D III for awhile, it may have been D II in the mid-1970s.

He coached at CUA for many years as well.

I believe that Humboldt was D II when Mark Conover was there.

Not a runner I suppose, but Bruce Jenner went to Graceland College which was probably D III.

Bart Goodell finished 5th in the 1988 US Olympic Trials decathlon and attended D II San Francisco State which was in the non scholarship Northern California Athletic Conference at the time. He was ranked in the top 10 three years in the late 1980s. He was probably there because the head coach was Harry Marra, a decathlon specialist.

dr

Not an elite runnner, but and "elite" for sure.

Matthew Busche (Luther College) rides professionally for Radioshack-nissan-trek. Already been former US RR champ and rode in the Vuelta. Definitely jumping from D3 to the big stage.

Fwiw wrote:

Was Moorehouse D3 when Edwin Moses went there?

Yes, they were D3. In 1977 he ran at D3 Nationals hosted by Calvin College in Grand Rapids MI. It was a year after his first Olympic Gold. I'm guessing that win was part of his 100+ winning streak.

(I was there in the 1500)

Curious about D3 wrote:

Haven't done too much research, but I know these:

-Will Leer (1:54 and 4:16 in HS) ran for Pomona-Pitzer, now 3:36 1500 PR

-Nick Symmonds (1:53 and 4:20 in HS) ran for Willamette, now an Olympian for 800m (1:42)

-Mack Chaffee (don't know HS times) ran for Williams and has broken 4:00 post-collegiately

-Bill Rodgers ran a 9:36 2mile and went to Wesleyan before winning multiple Boston Marathons

Anyone know any other elite runners who ran D3, their HS PRs, and how much they improved?

Only two of those guys have ever been elite.