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LeDuc earns All-American honors in steeplechase

CANTON, May 27 – Connecticut College freshman Mike LeDuc of Canton earned All-American honors by surging to a sixth place finish at the NCAA Division III national championships Friday night in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in Delaware, Ohio at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Mike LeDuc of Connecticut College

LeDuc knocked nearly 10 seconds off his personal best in the event, finishing the race in a school record time of 9:03.72. LeDuc ran in last place for the first 2-to-3 laps of the race but didn’t let the pack get too far away from him.


“We had planned at the fifth lap that he would start passing people,” said Jim Butler, Connecticut College’s cross county head coach and an assistant with the track and field squad. “Mike ran with the saavy of a much older runner. With about 600 meters to go, he moved into eighth place. He passed another guy with about 300 meters left and vaulted his way into sixth place with about 75 meters to go.”

Butler was impressed with LeDuc’s resilience and maturity to come through with such a strong effort at his first NCAA championship appearance.

LeDuc earned a spot in the NCAA championship event by winning the ECAC (Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference) title in the 3,000 steeplechase in 9:13.48 on May 19.

He is believed to be the first Canton man to earn Division III All-American honors in track but he isn’t the first from Canton to each such recognition. Kelly Rainey Kurcz earned All-American honors running for Massachusetts-Boston in 1986 as part of the 4×100 meter relay team.

Powell finishes 11th at NCAA

DELAWARE, Ohio, May 26 – Former Canton High runner Kim Powell of Dickinson College finished 11th in the 10,000 meters (6.2 miles) at the NCAA Division III national championship meet on Thursday. Powell finished with a time of 36:57.42 in the race with a strong sprint to the finish. Powell was one of three Dickinson women in the race and they started conservatively.

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Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.

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