[Sly Fox]

From a Rutland, VT fishwrap ...

Evans, Lusignan earn cross country titles

October 28, 2007

By Tom Haley Staff Writer

THETFORD — Brattleboro's Sarah Lange, U-32's Chelsea Evans, Burr and Burton Academy's Kelsey Kelleher, St. Johnsbury's Kyle Powers, U-32's Jeff Lusignan and Mount St. Joseph Academy's Marcin Kalita crossed the line first to become state champions in their races at the Vermont Cross Country Championships on Saturday at Thetford Academy.

The conditions tested all the runners.

"It was horrible. I felt like I was on a treadmill," Powers said.

Powers trailed teammate Ken Bunnell for the first half of the race before taking over. Powers finished in 17:03 and Bunnell in second with a time of 17:15. He was elated to reach the top in his senior season in the boys Division I race.

"It was kind of like opening that first Christmas present," said Powers, who is planning to run in college, and recently visited Stonehill and is also considering Liberty University.

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[PeterParker]

The New England states could be a coup for LU Running as far as recruiting is concerned. As I understand it, there are only a few christian-affiliated collegiate options for the evangelically inclined, and of those, they are DII and lower (Gordon, Eastern Nazarene, etc.)

(As an aside, I read a statistic where a huge percentage of University of Richmond's student body comes from the New England states, so the New Englanders are inclined to travel south of the Mason-Dixon for school, especially where scholarships are a part of the mix.)

As there are is a lot of talent up north, perhaps, LU should start targeting that area for the McDougal-like recruits (those who have marquee talent and desire a faith-based college with a Div. 1 College Running Program.)

Trust me, for those worth recruiting, they are very well aware of McDougal and the name on the singlet...Runners are notorious for knowing the ins and outs of what's going on in the collegiate ranks. McDougal's win could make it easier for Jimmerson and company to recruit similar talent.