MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Senior captain
Ned Farrington made history on Saturday, becoming the first Bates men's cross country and track and field athlete to earn All-America honors in all three seasons of the same school year.
Farrington (Cohasset, Mass.) placed fifth out of 12 runners in the finals of the 1,500 meters at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, earning a spot on the podium with his time of 3:52.54. This comes on the heels of a fourth-place showing in the Distance Medley Relay at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, and his 31st place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, both of which were also good for All-America honors.
"It's hard in our sport to have a storybook ending but Ned did it," Bates head cross country and distance coach
Danny Feldman said. "He made all of the right moves we planned, and closed faster than he has ever done in the last 400. He raced with guts, and his efforts today and all year were so spectacular. I don't take for granted how special of a Bobcat Ned has been for the program."
Farrington is the third Bates athlete in history to pull off the same-school-year "trifecta," joining women's cross country and track and field runners
Katherine Cook '18 and
Kathryn Moore '07.
Farrington, Cook, Moore,
Mike Danahy '00,
Matt Twiest '00,
John Fitzgerald '87, and
Jamie Goodberlet '85 are the only Bates cross country and track and field runners to earn All-America honors all three seasons over the course of their careers as Bobcats. Farrington and Goodberlet are the only two Bates male athletes to earn All-America honors outdoors in the 1,500 meters, with Goodberlet finishing eighth in 1985.
Saturday's 1,500-meter final was another tactical battle, as Lynchburg's Sam Llaneza led wire-to-wire, winning the race in 3:51.05. By comparison, Farrington's top time during the regular season was 3:45.81. Farrington was in sixth about halfway through on Saturday. He made a push and got into third place at the 1,100-meter mark, before ending up in fifth at the finish, just .10 seconds behind fourth-place finisher Mason Ratkovich of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The runners had to avoid some chaos along the way, with Haverford's Reza Eshghi taking a tumble during the last 400 meters, going from second place to not finishing the race.
Farrington and third-place finisher Colin Kirkpatrick of Pomona-Pitzer were the only runners in the field of 22 athletes in the 1,500 meters to earn All-America honors all three seasons this school year.
"I feel like I executed the race plan perfectly," Farrington said. "I couldn't be prouder of my last race in a Bates jersey!"
Farrington graduates as the Bates record-holder in the indoor 5K and the outdoor 1,500 meters. He will use his extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic to compete for the University of Maine at the Division I level while earning a graduate degree next year.
