University of Illinois
NCAA Championships
Dylan Lafond Set for NCAA Championships
November 20, 2015 | Men's Cross Country
Steeplechase All-American Brings NCAA Championships Experience
Champaign, Ill. – First Team All-Midwest Regional selection Dylan Lafond will compete in his first NCAA Cross-Country Championships meet tomorrow afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky. The junior is in his second season on campus after redshirting during last year's cross-country season after transferring from the University of Mount Olive. NCAA Championships will begin at 12 p.m. central time at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park with the awards ceremony to follow at 1 p.m. central time.
Lafond has finished first on the team at every race he has competed in this season. On November 1 at Big Ten Championships, he ran the fastest 8K time in Illinois history, clocking a time of 23:22.4, earning First Team All-Big Ten honors. Two weeks later, Lafond continued his postseason success, placing eighth overall at the NCAA Midwest Regional, once again earning first team honors.
Although this will be Lafond's first crack at NCAA Championships for cross-country, the Manchester, New Hampshire native brings experience and success on the national stage from last spring's NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Lafond placed seventh in the steeplechase, with a time of 8:42.96, to earn First-Team All-American honors.
Lafond's individual selection for the 2015 cross-country championships was determined after the 31-team NCAA Championships field was finalized on Saturday. After taking away all runners on teams that qualified for the meet in Louisville, each of the nine regions was given four automatic individual bids for the top-four remaining finishes. Finally, two at-large bids were taken from the remaining national pool to complete the field. Dylan's eighth-place finish in the Midwest Regional fell outside the top four at the Midwest regional, but was selected as one of the two at-large bids.
