Gunning for Gold

SELINSGROVE, Pa. - Two weeks after concluding their regular season by running in the Allentown Invitational, the Susquehanna University men's and women's cross country squads will return to Center Valley to participate in the Middle Atlantic Conference championships on Saturday morning.

Second-year head coach Craig Penney expects the men's team to improve significantly upon last season's disappointing 10th-place finish, while this year's women's squad has a tough act to follow after the 1999 team enjoyed the best finish in program history with a fourth-place showing in the 13-team event.

Leading the way on the men's side is junior co-captain Mike Lehtonen (Laurens, N.Y./Morris Central H.S.), who has been the team's top finisher in five of its six meets this season. Lehtonen won the Susquehanna Invitational on September 30 with a time of 27:14, and posted his fastest 8,000 meters of the year at the Lebanon Valley Invitational on September 9 when he crossed the line in a time of 27:13.

Also expected to score for the men's team are a trio of freshmen in Ryan Gleason (Johnstown, Pa./Westmont Hilltop H.S.), Ryan McGuire (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon H.S.) and Clint Swartz (Milton, Pa./Warrior Run H.S.). Gleason and McGuire have each run under 28 minutes this season while Swartz's best mark is a time of 29:22 at Dickinson. Junior co-captain Jake Trevino (Danville, Pa./Danville H.S.) has also been a consistent scorer for the Crusaders, as he was the second Susquehanna runner to cross the line at Dickinson and the fourth Crusader to finish at Lebanon Valley.

On the women's side, it should be a battle between junior Kim Owen (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin H.S.) and sophomore Erin Colwell (Belleville, Pa./Indian Valley H.S.) for the top spot among Susquehanna runners. The co-captains have been the top two Susquehanna runners at five of the six meets this season, and were not separated by more than 13 seconds in any race this year. The duo finished in the top 25 at both Lebanon Valley and Allentown, and at the Susquehanna Invitational Owen took second place and Colwell fourth.

Other runners for the Crusaders include sophomore Angela Luino (Oakland, N.J./Indian Hills H.S.), who ran a season-best time of 20:49 at the Dickinson Invitational and took fifth at the Susquehanna Invitational, freshman Amanda Phillips (Waymart, Pa./Western Wayne H.S.), a scoring runner in all six Crusader meets, and freshman Kassi Tylenda (Windsor, N.Y./Windsor H.S.), who has been one of the team's most consistent performers all year as the number-five runner.

The championships will be held at Allentown for the fourth straight year, with the men's race scheduled to begin at 12 noon and the women's race slated for a 1 p.m. start on Saturday. Moravian is favored to win its eighth straight championship on the women's side while Elizabethtown will look to retain the men's title for a second straight year.