BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Junior Dillon Farrell of the Moravian College men's cross country team is carrying the Blue and Grey banner as the Greyhounds' representative in NCAA championship season this fall, and he's not afraid of setting the bar high.
Farrell is competing in the 2013 NCAA Division III Championships at Hanover (Ind.) College on Saturday, Nov. 23, and as soon as the gun fires at 12:30 p.m., the junior's journey toward a piece of Moravian history will begin at a blistering five-minutes-per-mile pace.
"As of right now, there are, tops, five runners who are faster than me in the country," Farrell said. "My expectations are to finish in the top 15 and make All-America without question."
If Farrell's goals are met, he would become the first-ever All-American in Moravian men's cross country history.
Moravian's star harrier finished in 11th place in last weekend's NCAA Division III Mideast Regional qualifier with a time of 25:02 on the 8,000-meter course at Lehigh University's Goodman Campus. After the overall team champion and at-large team selections were removed from the individual standings, Farrell was easily cemented as one of the top seven runners in the region to punch a ticket to nationals.
Farrell preceded his All-Region finish by winning first place medalist and All-Conference honors at the Landmark Conference Championships with a time of 26:42.50 at the United States Soldiers and Airmen's Home in Washington, D.C. He was subsequently named the Landmark Conference Runner of the Year for 2013.
It is the second straight year Farrell has represented his school at the Division III Championships in cross country. Director of Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Jesse Baumann is confident that experience helped get the big-stage jitters out of his system, so this year the focus can remain on a fast time and a place in the history books.
"It helps that he went through this last year," Baumann said. "He saw the meet, he got the nerves out and he knows what to expect. The goal last year was to be All-American, and that goal never changes. Our region is extremely talented individually. If he can be in the hunt like he was in the region, he can be looking at top 35 at nationals."
The top 35 finishers in the Division III Championships are recognized as All-Americans by the NCAA, and the United States Track and Field Association selects the top 15 for All-America honors.
Farrell now owns the top three times in the 8K in school history, and seven of the top nine. He broke his own school record this fall with a 24:35 finish at the Princeton University Invitational. He has acknowledged he is in the best shape of his life, so the ensuing battles will be fought in between his ears.
"My coach and I have a philosophy that once you're within 10 days of a race, there's nothing you can do to get in better shape," Farrell said. "You can only make things worse for yourself. One thing we didn't adhere to last year was not monitoring the intensity of the workouts and I think that tired me out for the race. Our goal this year is to try to maintain the level of fitness I've built to this point without losing anything. The goal is to stay relaxed and to prepare more mentally for the race."
Last fall, Farrell finished in the middle of the national pack with a time of 25:46.10 at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The time currently sits in eighth place all-time in the 8K in the Moravian record books.
For a full preview of the NCAA Division III Championships, including course video, course maps, Farrell's competition and race results after the meet, visit http://www.hanover.edu/athletics/crosscountry/championships.
