North Central’s Dhruvil Patel Claims NCAA DIII Record at Stanford

(photo by Steve Woltmann)

USTFCCCA All-Time NCAA Division III Men’s 5000 Meters Leaderboard

STANFORD, CALIF. (Apr. 19, 2019) – Thriving in one the nation’s fastest races of the weekend, North Central College men’s track and field student-athlete Dhruvil Patel delivered a seven-second personal best in the 5,000-meter run at Stanford University’s Cardinal Classic Friday evening to establish himself as the fastest Division III runner the event has ever seen.

Patel’s time of thirteen minutes, 51.4 seconds was good for a twelfth-place finish in the twenty-man field, from which he was the lone Division III representative. Stanford’s own Grant Fisher won the race (13:29.52).

Previously the sixth fastest runner on the list, Patel eclipsed Carleton College’s Dan Kramer to claim the record, who held on to it for 32 years with a time of 13:53.2, ran in 1977.

🚨 RECORD ALERT 🚨 @NCCMensXCTF’s Dhruvil Patel broke the 42-year-old @NCAADIII record in the 5000!

Patel finished last night in 13:51.40, which better the previous NCAA DIII in-season best of 13:53.2h set by @CarletonTrackCC’s Dan Kramer in 1977.

— USTFCCCA (@USTFCCCA) April 20, 2019

Although he already owned the program’s outdoor 5,000 record—which came at the 2018 Drake Relays (13:58.27)—Friday’s performance represented the school’s all-time fastest 5,000, surpassing the indoor record set by Dan Mayer ’94 in 1994 (13:53.27).

North Central now holds the NCAA Division III outdoor record in three events, with Luke Winder ’18 owning the top mark in pole vault (18 feet, 4.50 inches) and Jan Cado ’93 in the triple jump (54’4.75″) and

North Central heads to Des Moines, Iowa next weekend for the Drake Relays, with accepted entries announced on Sunday, Apr. 21.