Juniors Sam Wilbur and Ted FitzPatrick earned All-American honors at the NCAA Track and Field Championship earlier this month.
The pair's fast times propelled the team to a 13th place finish and bode well for next year's team.
Wilbur sprinted to his second fastest time ever in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, finishing fifth overall with a time of 8:46.77.
This was the best individual showing for a Dartmouth runner at the NCAA Championships since 1988, when Bob Kempainen '88 finished third in the 10,000 meters.
Kempainen holds the current American record in the New York Marathon.
FitzPatrick finished 11th in the 10,000 meters, clocking a time of 30:41.
"It was a great way to finish off the season," track Coach Barry Harwick said. He said that the times of both runners were "very significant, especially when one considers that a lot of the top athletes [in the championship] are foreign."
Wilbur's success follows an outstanding performance at the Senior Nationals last month, where he ran the 3,000 meter steeplechase in 8:47 and qualified to run for the East team in the Olympic Festival held in St. Loius, Mo. on July 8 to 10.
Both Wilbur and FitzPatrick are confident that the team's success will continue next year. FitzPatrick said many of the team's younger athletes ran well and predicted that they "can get close to the top five again."
Wilbur enthusiastically said, "The cross country team will rock next year." He predicted the performances of the '95s and '96s should lead Dartmouth to a position somewhere in the top 10 in the nation.
