Best D3 dist runners last 15 yrs

As listed in June 1977 and 1979 issue of Track & Field News:

Drake Relays 5000 m

1977

1. Rose - 13:27.2!!!

2. Gregorio - 13:48.0

3. Placencia - 13:49.2

4. Melancon - 13:52.8

5. Kramer (DIII) - 13:53.2 (I was off by a few ticks, but he's 2nd best all time)

6. Spillsbury - 13:59.9

1979

1. H. Lindsay - 13:45.5

7. J. Sinclair - 13:52.3

8. D. Henderson 13:52.3 (Henderson remains the all time leader)

The Bruce Fischer that ran sub-4 after college is not the same Bruce Fischer that ran at North Central.

Marc Hunter was not DIII or DII. He started at Kent State (DI) and transferred to Cleveland State (DI) when Kent dropped their program for a few years in the late 70s early 80s.

He was part of a Cleveland State team that finished 11th at the NCAA XC meet with all Northeast Ohio runners.

Incidentally, a few Cleveland Staters ended up transferring to Kent in the early 90s when CSU dropped their program and KSU had revived theirs.

King of Karma -

It is hard to argue with those statistics!

Dan Held, did, I believe run 13:41, 3:41, 2:13 debut and 28:23.

not nearly the best of the last 15 years - but i heard knox college had a great freshman back in the mid 90's

if you are going to add cooper what about kornilov, who ran some very fast times only to loose to paranya.

Did he go to a D3 school? If so, he definitely deserves to be on the list. A solid runner who many have never heard of... Somehow I thought he was D2- What school did he go to?

I answered my own question. He went to UW-Eau Claire, which used to be NAIA, but went to D3 for at least 2 years while Held was there. I found this bio at RWOL:

"Dan Held, who represented the U.S. at the 1997 World Championships and has a marathon best of 2:13:50, will pace a group of Americans at the LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon October 24. Held won the recent Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee in 2:23:22, was seventh in the 1996 Olympic Trials in 2:14:43, third in Pittsburgh in 1997 with a 2:16:52, and a disappointing 56th at the '97 Worlds in Athens in 2:35:19. A father of two living in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Held has a half-marathon best of 1:02:46."

His US Marathon Rankings:

1994 9th

1995 5th

1996 8th

1997 6th

In addition, he also won the 50 Mile USATF Championship a couple years ago.

Held ran those times as a post-collegian. He was one of those really good, but not great collegians who kept at it and kept getting better.

Tom Touri-may have broken 4:00- after college, but was a great talent. I think around 1:51 and 8:00.

Kevin Sullivan- < 14:00 5K, < 23:30 5m and others after college (some school in NYC I believe.

Arnie was a great track /CC runner, marathon was not his true game.