Today is the 25th anniversary of a fairly remarkable accomplishment in collegiate distance running, largely a footnote at this point, but nonetheless a pretty cool story:
On Saturday, November 17, 1990, Haverford College's Seamus McElligott, runner-up in 1989, won the NCAA Division III Mens XC title in Grinnell, Iowa, running 24:46 for the 8k distance. In those days, the winners of the D2 and D3 championships were invited to compete in the NCAA Division 1 championship race, but the catch was that the meet was two days later, on the following Monday. Historically, those who attempted the double-- with few exceptions over the years-- finished well back in the pack, spent from the travel and their own championship race two days prior.
Seamus and his coach, the legendary Tom Donnelly, traveled on Sunday to Knoxville, Tennessee, and prepared to square off the next day against the best runners in Division I, all of them fresh and ready for what is widely regarded as the most competitive single collegiate footrace of the year. The next morning, 11/19, Seamus was not only competitive at the longer 10k distance, he secured the final All-American slot, making him a Division 3 and Division 1 All-American over the course of about 48 hours.
The athlete immediately behind Seamus, and thus the first D1 athlete deprived of an All-American finish by Seamus' presence in the race, was none other than Villanova's Terrence Mahon, who had been an All-American the previous year while running for Oregon. Mahon is, of course, a prominent distance coach now (BAA, Deena Kastor, etc.). McElligott also beat the D2 national champion that year, Doug Hanson of North Dakota State, who was 1 second and 2 places back, in 30:14.
After that accomplishment, the Division 1 coaches voted to no longer allow Division 2 or 3 athletes to compete in the NCAA D1 meet. A reason was never widely circulated, but it was broadly understood that D1 coaches did not appreciate a D3 athlete coming in and stealing All-American slots from their athletes. Thus, Seamus McElligott was the last runner to ever accomplish this feat.
Seamus went on to a career which included repping the US on a World XC team (1996) and qualifying for the Olympic Trials in the 10k (1992). Sadly, he died suddenly and far too young in 1998.
25 YEARS AGO TODAY: The last NCAA XC Double All-American
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That's an awesome fun fact.
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That is cool, nice write-up. I believe somebody, maybe Danny Henderson, won D3 and took 10th in D1 two days later.
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Greatest feat I ever saw Mike Vanetta from SEMO Southeast Missouri 1984. He and his wife Chris both won NCAA D2 Nationals. Mike and his wife jumped into their 4 banger junk car drove 1,200 miles got out the car 2 hours before the gun went off at NCAA D1's and gets 10th. In my eyes one of the greatest feats I've ever scene!
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That would be pretty awesome if that were still possible today. I'd love to see even the top 3 or so from Div 2 and Div 3 invitied to the Div 1 meet, assuming they scheduled nationals on different weekends. Almost 0 chance that they'd contend for the win, likely just around the cut-line for AA status, and would do nothing to take away from the Div I race. It'd also afford a bit of publicity for the lower divisions and that'd be a good thing. I thought it was awesome back in 1998 when they had Div I and Div 2 both at Rim Rock in Lawrence on the same day.
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There is no doubt in my mind that Macharia Yuot would have won, or at least placed 2nd at d1 nats and Ricky Flynn would have been top 10.
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All Division III runners at DI nationals who finished in the top-35:
1975 2. Joel Jamison, Occidental 31st at Penn State Univ. (6M), 29:34
1976 2. Bob Hodge, Lowell 22nd at North Texas State (6M), 29:11
1978 1. Dan Henderson, Wheaton 10th at Univ. of Wisconsin (10k), 29:48.5
1983 1. Tori Neubauer, UWisc-La Crosse 11th at Lehigh Univ. (5k), 17:01.0
1984 1. Julia Kirtland, Macalester 25th at Penn State Univ. (5k), 16:59.6
1986 1. Arnie Schraeder, UWisc-Stevens Point 11th at Univ. of Arizona (10k), 31:14.49
1988 1. Anna Prineas, Carleton 21st at Iowa State Univ. (5k), 17:09
1990 1. Seamus McElligott, Haverford 35th at Tennessee (10k), 30:13 -
1973 or 74, Dave Moeller of University of Rochester, NY won DIII, placed top 20 at DI and again top 20 at AAU, a week or so later, which was a legit national champ race back then, as I recall.
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[quote]Remembering Seamus wrote:
Nice article.
I knew Seamus from his road race days; he was a beast. -
You do understand that 35th wasn't the cutoff?
The rules were top 25, plus any Americans up to 25 total. So the cut off could be 35th or 40th or 45th.
The first year of the backdoor All Americas was 1974. I happen to be the last AA of that year -- 39th place. (14 foreign athletes in the top 25.) -
Remembering Seamus wrote:
After that accomplishment, the Division 1 coaches voted to no longer allow Division 2 or 3 athletes to compete in the NCAA D1 meet. A reason was never widely circulated, but it was broadly understood that D1 coaches did not appreciate a D3 athlete coming in and stealing All-American slots from their athletes. Thus, Seamus McElligott was the last runner to ever accomplish this feat.
It actually was decided not to allow D2 and 3 runners BEFORE this race. Here is a write up from the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Haverford College runner Seamus McElligott crossed first at one national championship race last weekend and 35th at another, but it's hard to tell which satisfied him more.
The victory came at the Division III championships Saturday in Grinnell, Iowa, where McElligott covered 8,000 meters in 24 minutes, 47 seconds, and
qualified for the Division I championships two days later in Knoxville, Tenn.
Though he finished 35th overall in Knoxville, he was 25th among runners
from this country, just good enough to be named all-American in Division I.
Because the qualifying exemption for the Division III champion has been discontinued, McElligott will likely be the last runner to jump two divisions for some time.
"I think that's unfair, because it's only three runners, the Division III champion and the top two in Division II," he said. "It's kind of stupid to change the rule to keep three people out."
Another all-American out of the Division I race was Paul Vandergrift, from Archbishop Kennedy High School. Running for William & Mary, Vandergrift finished 20th overall with a time of 29:57. -
malmo wrote:
You do understand that 35th wasn't the cutoff?
Understood, malmo. But 35th happened to be the cut-off that year. -
iced wrote:
That is cool, nice write-up. I believe somebody, maybe Danny Henderson, won D3 and took 10th in D1 two days later.
Which brings us to one of the most peculiar running video clips you can find if you haven't seen it. It starts with some home video clips of the 1980 Boston Marathon including Bill Rodgers and Amby Burfoot and what pretty much looks like Rose Ruiz in her yellow shirt at 44 seconds after jumping onto the course. Then the video has some of the 1978 NCAA XC meet in Madison won by Alberto Salazar. Danny Henderson did finish 10th. You can first see him in the orange hat and shorts and bluish tops at about 1:46. Danny later ran 13:23 for 5000m. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfLuDZwLwx4 -
1967 - Arjan Gelling, Dutch Canadian attending North Dakota, won the college division meet, then finished 2nd to Gerry Lindgren in the d1 meet.
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It was suicide, per his father, my former medical school professor.
grovecityxc wrote:
grovecityxc wrote:
Remembering Seamus wrote:
Sadly, he died suddenly and far too young in 1998.
There should be no reason not to write that he killed himself. So many of us have lost loved ones to suicide, but hiding that fact does no good.
I feel really bad about my post. I must have Seamus mixed up with somebody else and should have done my research before posting. Seamus did died tragically, but didn't kill himself. -
Dave Moller is also probably the only athlete to be All American in all three divisions. He was 10th in D-II XC in 1973, 1st in D-III XC in 1974, and 19th in D-I XC in 1974. He also won the D-III Three Mile in 1974.
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What about Mike Slack? Was he a Div. II runner when he competed against Prefontaine and Bjorklund? Also, I bet Van Nelson could have finished very high in NCAA I meets but he was running NAIA, I believe.
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coachkritter wrote:
1967 - Arjan Gelling, Dutch Canadian attending North Dakota, won the college division meet, then finished 2nd to Gerry Lindgren in the d1 meet.
http://onceuponatimeinthevest.blogspot.com/2015/06/v-5-no-55-arjan-gelling-dutch-canadian.html
