David Bishop (athlete) - NCAA & Collegiate Career

NCAA & Collegiate Career

During his first season as a New Mexico Lobo, Bishop showed dramatic improvement in his cross country running, as he scored for the lobos in every meet and was the first lobo in two of the meets. His cross country season culminated at the Mountain Region Cross Country championships, where he finished 14th, covering the 5000 ft high altitude 10 km course in 30:06.0. During the Lobos record-breaking 2009 Cross country season, Bishop continued to be a crucial performer. He led the Lobos once whilst scoring in all seven season races, earning all-Mountain West Conference first-team honours with a sixth place finish in the Lobo’s first conference win since 1988, as well as scoring in the Lobo’s highest ever team finish at the NCAA Cross Country Nationals (8th place). In Bishop's final Cross Country season as a Lobo, he scored in every meet, completing his 100% record of scoring in every race for the Lobos. The 2010 season also brought large improvements, as Bishop finished 5th in the 2010 Mountain Region, which was to be the Lobo's first ever Regional victory. His final Cross Country race for the Lobos saw him take an impressive 41st place in the NCAA meet.

His debut season track highlights included anchoring the Lobo's Distance Medley Relay (DMR) to a Mountain West Conference silver medal in the closest DMR race in the conference history, a mile race victory in 4:00.38 which currently ranks him the second fastest Lobo miler of all-time, and leading off the New Mexico Distance Medley Relay team to a school record with an impressive 1200 m leg. In 2011, Bishop raced on the Distance Medley Relay team again, twice anchoring the team to sub 9:32 performances, including splitting one of the fastest times in NCAA Indoor National Championship history, 3:54.32 on the anchor, earning All-American honours. In his six conference track and field championships with the Lobos, Bishop has attained four bronze medals and three silver medals. His 2011 outdoor season saw him ranked top 10 in the NCAA Division for 1,500m after setting a new career best time of 3:41.12 at Mt SAC Relays and qualify for the NCAA DI National Championships after finishing 3rd in the NCAA Regional meet in Eugene, OR.

Bishop completed his collegiate campaign by gaining selection to compete for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at the 26th Universiade in Shenzhen, China where he qualified for the final and went on to finish 7th in the largely tactical race, running 3:49.