TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – It was an unfortunate end to a tremendous cross country season for Cornell junior Isaac vanWestrienen at Saturday's NCAA Division III Championships.
 
Battling an illness and clearly not full strength, vanWestrienen finished 272nd out of 294 men's competitors at LaVern Gibson Championship Course.
 
VanWestrienen covered the 8-kilometer layout in 26:38, more than two minutes behind the pace he set on the same course two months ago. He posted an 8K school-record time of 24:15 earlier this month.
 
UW-Whitewater's Christian Patzka was crowned NCAA individual champion with a mark of 24:01. The top-40 all-America cutoff was 24:46.
 
The 2024 Midwest Conference champion, vanWestrienen qualified for the NCAAs for the second consecutive year, after taking 65th in 2023. VanWestrienen earned a national berth with a strong fourth-place showing at the Midwest Region Championships Nov. 16.
 
VanWestrienen, a two-time all-region honoree, claimed five top-five finishes this fall. He guided coach Jerry Frawley's regionally-ranked Rams to the MWC team championship, marking the program's fourth title since 2017.