Contact: Brock Reisler, Assistant Executive Director, breisler@midwestconference.org
 
OSHKOSH, Wisconsin – Seven athletes from four Midwest Conference schools have qualified for the 2025 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships, set for Saturday, November 22, at the Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The men’s race is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. CT, while the women’s race begins at 10:00 a.m. CT.
 
Cornell College’s Lidia Dahlman, Grinnell College’s Hannah Roark and Ripon College’s Joley Berger and Jenny Cortes have all earned a spot at next weekend’s women’s event, while Cornell’s Isaac vanWestrienen and Jacob Bach, along with Knox College’s Lance Miller, have qualified for the men’s championship.
 
The reigning Midwest Conference individual champion, Dahlman earned her first career NCAA Championships appearance with a ninth-place finish at the Midwest Region Championships on Saturday, sporting a time of 22:04.8.
 
Roark narrowly qualified for her first NCAA Championship race, taking 18th in a loaded Midwest Region field. Her time of 22:28.6 was good enough to book her spot in the NCAA Championships next weekend.
 
Berger (11th place) and Cortes (14th place) had strong performances at the North Region meet in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Berger recorded a time of 22:15.1, while Cortes ran the 6K in 22:19.2. Both athletes will be competing at nationals for the first time.
 
This marks the first time since 2016 that the Midwest Conference has sent more than two athletes to the NCAA Championships.
 
VanWestrienen, the back-to-back Midwest Conference (MWC) Men's Cross Country Individual Champion, booked his spot in the championship field with a first-place finish at last weekend’s Midwest Region Championships, clocking a time of 24:00.9. Last season, vanWestrienen competed in the NCAA Men’s Cross Country Championship, taking 272nd overall. Two seasons ago, he finished 65th overall.
 
Bach earned his spot at the sport’s culminating event for the first time in his career with a 14th-place regional finish, scoring a time of 24:43.8.
 
Miller also had an impressive run at the Midwest Region race, as the senior took 20th with a time of 24:56.7 to earn his first NCAA Championships appearance.
 
This marks the first time since 2018 that the Midwest Conference has had multiple men qualify for the NCAA Championships.
 
Each championship will feature 32 teams and 70 individual qualifiers, including the top seven student-athletes from each region who are not part of a qualifying team. The top 40 finishers in both genders will earn All-America honors.
 
A live stream of the championships will be available on NCAA.com starting at 9:00 a.m. CT, continuing through the awards ceremony.