Today we continue the countdown of the Top 10 sports stories of the 2016-2017 school year at Central College with number five.

Mark Fairley went from last chance qualifier to national runner-up in the course of 10 days, as the Central College men’s track and field runner took second place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 27th.

Fairley blazed the track in a school record 9:06.33 in the finals, his fourth steeplechase in three weeks. A superb late charge by Ian Ewers of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse gave him the national title in 9:05.58

The runner-up finish gave Fairley his first All-American honor, and the program’s second of the weekend after Logan Mulford’s seventh-place finish in the high jump.