A career full of clutch performances in big meets, including eight All-America certificates and an NCAA Division III National Cross Country Championship, was based on a “business as usual” attitude for Derron Bishop ’93.
Bishop’s four years in the Cardinals’ cross country and track and field programs were remarkable in both their quality and consistency. He is one of three four-time All-Americans in cross country at North Central and one of 14 in the history of Division III. He was part of three national runner-up teams before leading North Central to the national title as a senior. On the track, he earned All-America honors twice in both the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs outdoors, helping the Cardinals to top -10 finishes in the team standings.
Bishop entered collegiate competition without a concrete set of expectations, but a 19th-place finish as a freshman at the 1989 National Cross Country Championships provided a quick study on the path to success at the national level.
“I just wanted to do as well as I possibly could,” he said. “I can’t say that I really had any goals in a sense that I wanted to be an All-American or national champion. I felt if I did the best I could and ran as fast as I could, I would never be upset with myself.
“As a freshman at the cross country championships, I kind of surprised myself. Before I came to North Central, I thought when you got to a big race you had to do something different, something above and beyond what you did to get there. I found that it was the exact opposite. We were all taught that you don’t have to do anything extra. We were trained exactly for that day, so in some ways it was actually pretty easy.”
Bishop followed that performance with a 17th-place finish at the 1990 Cross Country Championships and a seventh-place effort in 1991, helping lead the Cardinals to runner-up finishes in his first three seasons of competition. As a senior, he claimed the individual College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Championship before pacing North Central to its eighth national cross country title, finishing sixth as the Cardinals achieved a nine-point margin of victory over the University of Rochester.
“I really wanted North Central to win a national title,” he said. “It wasn’t about me. It was about building a team and a group of people who were willing to come along for it. It was great for me to watch the younger guys fall into the system and do the same things I had done.”
