Jake Leingang to NDSU

[Buffalo.Rider]

That is a great list. You can even include Randy Lussenden, Tom Stambaugh, Paul LeBlanc, Doug Hanson, and John Shurb. Also Moorhead State had John Alin, Greg Zahalka, Chris Ericson, and Kelly Mortenson. Concordia even had a guy in the mid 80's but his name escapes me.

I don't mean to discount anything that Bison middle and distance runners have been doing the last 10-15 years, but most if not all of those 1970s and 1980s runners did not have the benefit of running warm weather races against really good competition in March and April, nor have opportunities to run in end of season meets like the Jim Bush invitational the first Saturday in June, when the pressure was off, and to just get out and run for time. Good as those 1970s and 1980s M & D runners were, I suspect that if they had more meets with top competition and good weather, they would have run quite a bit faster than they did. That would have been pretty interesting to see what they could have done.

The regular college season for T&F is over by mid-May for those who do not qualify for nationals, and is over before June for those who qualify for the Div II NCAAs. In ND and MN, good track and field running weather (warm, no rain or a warm rain, and little wind) is not common until May, and even May can be dicey. So getting the warm weather, good competition meets, as the present T & F teams get, is good for the program.