Lusignan impresses at Pre-Nats

[JackJD]

Junior Trent Lusignan became (unofficially) only the second Jackrabbit to break 24 minutes at 8,000 meters, when he ran 23:49.65 and finished 19th at the Pre-National meet in Terra Haute, IN Saturday. The Jackrabbit men finished 29th out of 52 teams. Story on GoJacks.com: http://www.gojacks.com/ViewArticle.d...B_OEM_ID=15000

I've thought about how to explain Lusignan's performance for those who don't know cross country times. The Pre-Nationals is the most competitive meet in the country behind the actual national meet. If Lusignan runs close to that time at the nationals, he's a Division I All-American. If I tried to make some comparisons with other SDSU sports performances over the past few years, I'd have to say that Lusignan's performance is the top performance by any SDSU athlete in his/her chosen sport. (That's not taking anything away from Nate Wolters -- I'm a huge Nate fan.)

I'll try to get the word on who is believed to be the only other Jackrabbit to go under 24 minutes in a cross country 8 K.

[JackJD]

Re: Lusignan impresses at Pre-Nats

*As noted in the prior post and the cited GoJacks article, it appears Lusignan is one of only two Jackrabbits to go under 24 minutes for 8,000 meters. The other Jackrabbit was Garry Bentley who hailed from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Bentley won the NCAA D2 National Meet in 1973 running 8,000 meters (see Note 1 below comparing five miles to 8k) in 23:49. (Prior to 1973, the NCAA had been divided into University and College Divisions…in 1973, the University Division became D-I and the College Division split into D2 and D3). In those days, the top runners in the D2 meet (I don’t recall the exact number who advanced…about 10 or 15 or so) advanced to the D-I meet which raced the following week over a 10,000 meter course. Bentley finished eighth in the D-I race, running 10K in 28:44, finishing 30 seconds behind the winner, a guy some readers of this post may remember: Steve Prefontaine from Oregon.

The following year, 1974, Bentley shaved 16 seconds off his 8k time, repeating as the D2 champ, covering the course in 23:33. He advanced to the 10K D-I race but didn’t fare as well as the prior year, finishing 32nd (still, an outstanding performance), one minute and 20 seconds behind the winner, Nick Rose, a native of England running for Western Kentucky. (The following spring, I watched Garry beat Rose and an outstanding field to win the six-mile at the Drake Relays.)

The Jay Dirksen-coached Jackrabbits won the D2 National Title in 1973 and were the runners-up in 1974.

Compare: SDSU headcoach Rod DeHaven, a multiple All-American in cross country and track and field with several national titles to his credit, ran a blistering 22:54 for 8,000 as a professional runner in 1999 at Cedar Rapids, IA.

(1) Note: Still checking on whether the D2 National Championships in 1973 and 1974 were run on five mile or 8k courses. A five-mile course is longer: there are 8,046.72 meters in five miles.

*Thanks to multiple-All American distance ace and school-record setter at various distances, Brad Lowery ('06), for research. Brad got real close to breaking 24 minutes in the 8k...I watched him run 24:12 for 8000m and the championship title at the Jim Drews Invitational Cross Country Meet at UW-Lacrosse in 2005.