MOUNT VERNON – Three-time qualifier Isaac vanWestrienen will be joined by first-timers Jake Bach and Lidia Dahlman in representing the Cornell Rams at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships this weekend in Spartanburg, S.C.
 
VanWestrienen and Bach will compete in the men's 8K race at 9 a.m. Saturday at Milliken Research Park. Dahlman punched her ticket to the women's 6K race, which begins at 10 a.m.
 
The men's and women's fields feature 70 individuals in addition to 32 qualifying seven-member teams in each race. The top 40 finishers in each gender earn all-America status.
 
Fans can follow Saturday's live results here.
 
The last time the Rams qualified three individuals was 2018, which also marks the year of Cornell's last all-American (Mason Wicker) in cross country.
 
VanWestrienen is a national title contender after winning the Midwest Conference Championships Nov. 1 and the Midwest Region Championships Nov. 15. His lifetime-best 8K time is 23:57, recorded twice this fall.
 
VanWestrienen finished 65th in his 2023 NCAA debut. The senior was 272nd in 2024. VanWestrienen collected three all-America medals during the 2025 track & field seasons.
 
Wartburg's Isaiah Hammerand is the only Division III competitor to beat vanWestrienen in four races this fall. At regionals, VanWestrienen ran eight seconds faster than runner-up Hammerand.
 
Bach, a junior transfer from Division I Wyoming, secured an NCAA berth with a 14th-place regional effort last weekend. He took third at the MWC meet in a season-best 24:34.
 
On the women's side, Dahlman is Cornell's first female qualifier since 2017 when MariKate Murphy finished 92nd. The sophomore was crowned MWC champion with a record time of 21:00.
 
Dahlman placed ninth at regionals, shaving 77 seconds off her time from a year ago.