After an early-season foot injury that occurred days after the first meet on Sept. 2, it was hard to predict how sophomore Dan Stock would run later in the year. Stock’s individual bid to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 21 may not have been expected, but it will serve as an asset for his next two seasons.

Stock finished the National 10K race in 136th place with a time of 31:20.

“I was disappointed where I finished in the race, but I came away with a personal best and invaluable experience for the future,” he said.

Wisconsin’s Simon Bairu finished in first place with a time of 29:15. Richard Koplagat of Iona (29:21) and Chris Solinsky of Wisconsin (29:27) completed the top-three.

Although Stock was hoping for a top-50 finish, head coach Wendel McRaven said Stock had a solid race.

“He was the 19th finisher from the Big Ten,” McRaven said. “He definitely tried to put himself in a good position early on. He finished strong; the last 2K of the race he passed 10 to 15 athletes.”

McRaven said that not getting a top-50 finish will only give Stock something to strive for next year and the fact that Stock was able to hold his own in such a highly competitive race was “commendable.” While Stock said he was in the “ballpark” of finishing where he wanted, he admitted he was a little overwhelmed with the “size and intensity of the race.”

“Dan will be able to say, ‘Now I’ve got something to work on and do something at the national meet, not just finish 136th,” McRaven said of Stock looking ahead to the 2006 season.

Stock qualified for the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., after finishing in 19th place with a time of 31:30 at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Iowa City on Nov. 12. After injuring a foot tendon in the first meet of the season, Stock did not race again until the Pre-National Meet in Terre Haute, Ind. on Oct. 15. Stock finished the 8K race with a time of 24:52. Since he returned to racing, he has led the Illini in each of their last three races.

Another of Stock’s goals included having his 8K split of the 10K national race be lower than his 8K Pre-National time. While McRaven said Stock was about nine seconds off of that goal, the split was “pretty positive.”

McRaven also said one other instance that worked against Stock was that since he designed a training schedule centered around the team concluding its season after the Regional meet.

“With (Stock) as an individual (qualifier), he probably ran out of gas at the end of the season,” McRaven said. “We tapered for the Big Ten’s and Regionals, you can only taper and reduce volume for so long.”

Next season, McRaven’s team returns redshirts Jason Bill, who individually qualified for the national meet in 2004, Jon Houseworth and Trent Hoerr. It is McRaven’s hope that Stock will take what he has learned this season and transfer it over for his junior year, when McRaven wants to make the Illinois men’s cross country team a nationally competitive program.

“(Stock) has definitely taken running to another level,” McRaven said. “It shows how good he can eventually be.”