Contact: Brock Reisler, Assistant Executive Director, breisler@midwestconference.org
 
SPARTANBURG, South Carolina – Seven Midwest Conference athletes competed in the 2025 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday. The event was held at Milliken Research Park.
 
Cornell College’s Isaac vanWestrienen and Jacob Bach, along with Knox College’s Lance Miller, ran in the men’s 8K, while the women’s race featured Cornell’s Lidia Dahlman, Grinnell College’s Hannah Roark and Ripon College’s Joley Berger and Jenny Cortes.
 
vanWestrienen was one of the stars on Saturday in his third career NCAA Cross Country Championship. The senior was named a cross country All-American for the first time with a top 40 finish, taking third in 23:39.8. He was in the top five from the 3K on and even held a lead after the 6K. Bach placed 158th in 25:43.2, while Miller took 197th (25:59.6).

vanWestrienen's third place performance is the highest for the Midwest Conference at men's nationals since 1977 when Carleton College's Dale Kramer won the national championship.
 
In the women’s race, Cortes was the league’s top finisher. She took 87th in 22:43.2. Her teammate Berger was next, crossing the tape in 23:03.0 for a 131st place finish, while Dahlman took 222nd (23:44.7). Roark placed 254th in 24:16.8.
 
This season marked the first time since 2018 that more than one male made the NCAA Championships, and the first time since 2021 that the MWC had multiple women qualify for the season’s culminating event.