Who is the best runner in NCAA history to never have won an individual title?

Derrick is the correct answer.

Lauren is the female Derrick.

This is a subtly bifold question: "The greatest runner in NCAA history" is the tricky qualifying phrase (i.e. who had the best NCAA career with no titles v. the greatest runner ever to participate in the NCAA with no titles)

The first is Derrick (who must have a dartboard with Lawi's image) whereas the second is Viren.

Probably Lasse Viren. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention Alan Webb, but he has to be up there even if he was pretty inconsistent.

I realize Rono’s school didn’t compete in D1 until his last year, but he did run in a D1 final after his Olympic Gold and lost (to his teammate).

Bile won the NCAA 1500 in 1987. Rono was not going to win that race.
Falcon won in 1988 but was flat at the Trials that year. Maybe Rono would have won that race but Falcon was pretty good that year. He fell in the 1989 NCAA 1500 where Kip Cheruyiot beat Rono.

Yes, Rono was an NCAA Division 2 champion, but we’re talking D1 here, right?

Fact is, Peter Rono was an Olympic Gold medalist that ran in an NCAA division 1 championship and did not win there.

Seth

Billy Mills

Mo Ahmed

I interpreted the question as: among athletes who competed seriously at DI XC/T&F and never won an individual title, who had the best subsequent professional career?

so far Molly Huddle seems like the best answer. Way better career than Chris Derrick’s

Viren’s multiple Olympic Gold medals would disagree with you (interpreted that way)

Former 1500/ mile world record holder and Olympic medalist Filbert Bayi.

If you read what OP actually wrote, it is obviously the former.

So who has the best NCAA resume (not necessarily what they’ve done post-college) without a title?

Best NCAA career without a title is probably Derrick.

XC - not just AA x4, but top ten x4 (7th, 3rd, 5th, 2nd). Can't really overstate how difficult this is.

10,000 - American collegiate record (27:31), AA x2 (3rd, 4th)

5000 - 13:19 indoor, American Jr record outdoor (13:29), AA x3 in (2nd, 4th, 8th), AA x2 out (3rd, 4th, 4th)

3000 - 7:46 indoor, American Jr record (7:56), AA x2 (2nd, 5th)

I saw several folks mention Viren and thought to my self "what are they talking about, he never ran for a US university". So I looked it up. He ran 1 season of XC for BYU, not sure of the year (1969?).

Lasse Viren is definitely the correct answer.

Yobes Ondieki.

Paul Chelimo should probably get a mention

Does Lasse Viren really count? According to Wikipedia, he only ran at BYU for one season of XC… technically he ran in the NCAA but if that’s accurate, he’s not relevant to this discussion.

“Virén began his running career in the United States at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. Virén ran on the Varsity Cross-Country team for BYU for one season, before returning home to his native Finland.”

Hard to argue with this. Agreed Derrick is the answer.

This one is the closest he got. If he had held Lalang off with 300 to go I think he would have taken it.

What a stacked race - Lalang, Derrick, Cam Levins, Chelimo, Ryan Hill, Lenny Korir, among others.

This thread really makes one appreciate how badly Schumacher screwed up Chris Derrick.