Photo Courtesy of d3photography.com

The beginning of our countdown of the top 10 sports moments from Central College this past school year takes us to Michigan as the cross country teams sent three individuals to the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday, November 19th.

Not only running against the most competitive field they saw all season, the Dutch battled their toughest weather conditions as well. The race-time temperature at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers Golf Course was just 22 degrees with a 15 mph wind, and while an attempt was made to brush snow off the race path, a thin layer remained for the race. 

Junior Caroline McMartin and senior Caleb Silver each gained all-American honors. McMartin was 24th in the women’s race in 22:31.0 while Silver placed 25th in the men’s race in 25:29.3. Central’s other men’s qualifier, Noah Jorgenson was among the leaders much of the way, but had a difficult final kilometer, slipping to 79th in 25:59.0. 

McMartin’s time on the frozen course was just 17 seconds off of the time she posted in far more favorable circumstances at the NCAA Midwest Regional and was 14 seconds faster than her time at the American Rivers Conference meet in Indianola on October 29th. McMartin was Central’s ninth women’s cross country all-American and the first since Beth Cunningham placed 20th in 2004. 

Silver was Central’s first men’s all-American runner since Mark Fairley finished 20th in 2017 and was the ninth overall honoree. He had finished 22nd at the conference meet and 13th in the regional meet but saved his peak effort for his second national meet appearance. This marked the second straight year that the Central men’s cross country team had multiple individual qualifiers at the national meet.