November 21, 2005 · Terra Haute, Ind.
For the second-consecutive season, Liberty's Josh McDougal has earned All-American honors as he placed fourth at this year's NCAA Cross Country National Championships, Monday afternoon, on the La Vern Gibson Championship Course.
Coming into the race McDougal was touted as one of the contenders for the national championship. His time of 29:32.6 on the 10k course was a personal best, while only be bested by this year's winner Simon Bairu of Wisconsin (29:15.9), Richard Kiplagat of Iona (29:21.9) and Chris Solinsky of Wisconsin (29:27.8).
A month earlier McDougal had run the La Vern Gibson Championship Course (8k) and set a new course record, breaking the previous record by 18 seconds.
McDougal's sophomore season was much like his freshman as he won every race leading up to the national championship, placing 13th at the NCAA Championships a season ago.
All the super-soph did this season was set course records at the Stanford Invitational, NCAA Pre-Nationals, Big South Championship and NCAA Southeast Regional Championships, while winning six out of seven races.