Who is the WORST runner in NCAA history to have won an individual title?

Julia Rizk OSU 2019 outdoor 1500

Michaela Degenero CU 2022 indoor mile. Last qualifier in field via scratches, last time qualifier to final due teammate Boreman keeping heat2 slow.

Julia Bottorff

Ben Flanagan only competed up front in 1 NCAA championship race and he won it.

Most unexpected one-off performance might be a kinder/more accurate title for the thread.

Indoor 800-3k seems to produce the most one off / outlier wins.

You have worms in your brain dude. In what world is our "soft on crime" when you can see our incarceration rates? Take a gander at your own city's police (granted, you probably live in Towson or something). The beef is actually with the poor discretion of the California parole board who apparently did not consider that sexual assault is considered the crime most at risk or recidivism, particularly after spending time in the U.S. prison system.

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Deike's obit also mentions he lost a child, just tragic.

As to original Q, picking cross country champions and citing their track times is unfair as OH...TX brought up. Mac Fleet being mentioned reminded me of Zach Perkins, a two-time runner-up in the 1500 with PRs of 3:41/1:50 who almost stole a couple national titles.

Another lady is Karissa Nelson who won the 2017 indoor mile and then nothing else. Again, injuries played a big role in her not having more success but she just hasn't seemed to reach the level one would expect from an NCAA champion.

Let’s say I am the worst poster on LRC.

Chad Noelle is worse than Jakob Ingrebrigtsen.

Is that ironic?

Mr. Deike was 30 years old at the time. Rules were different to accommodate returning soldiers.

Under all the circumstances, I'm somewhat impressed.

Name a worse XC champion. In list of 20 great dudes, someone needs to be worst. He is still a great runner.

The answer is Donald Sage. Here are his PRs, wouldn't even qualify for NCAAs with most of these marks:

1500 m
3:39.17
2001
1 Mile
3:58.7
2000
5000 m
14:04.94
2001
10000 m
28:40.12
2002

I think Fleet and Noelle are both weaker men's 1500 champs. They have 3:38 PRs over 10 years after Sage at a time when the 1500 was a lot more competitive in the US than the early 2000s.

all of them, then. 3:58 for the mile wouldn't even qualify for NCAAs

Easy answer. Can’t believe it took that long to mention him. This was the year McGorty Yorks and Ches opted out of the mile so Wynne got a title being the 4th best guy

This!

First guy I thought of. The NCAA final was literally the only race he won that year.

I would, to the contrary, say the rules HAVE NOT changed. The NCAA had no age limit back then. The NCAA has no age limit now. You are welcome to start at 30.

It turns out that Deike's murdered fiance was raped and killed by one Daryl Hill Kemp, who committed at least 11 other rapes and was given the death penalty for the first three cases he was charged with, but ended up through a long series of judicial events not being killed and eventually released in 1978, whereupon he raped and killed another woman, and then he was finally convicted for that (they thought it was another serial killer at the time) and executed just eight years ago.

Crazy how Wynne managed to parlay 1 title into a pro career. Guy ended up running 3:50/51? Turns out he was pretty good, but not sure he would have gotten the chance had he not won the mile, especially considering the big 3 that year passed it up.