MileStat.com feels that many of today's high school runners, have heros, idols, and role models in other professional mainstream sports but often none in the sport which they actually compete in. We will be producing on a bi-weekly if not weekly basis featured interviews introducing today's high school athletes in Virginia to former preps from the state who have went onto be very successful at the next level, whether collegiately, professionally, or both. Our first interview article in this series features Donnie Cowart (formerly Donnie Mikels), a semi-professional runner (runs for Ragged Mountain Racing Team in Charlottesville) currently chasing the Olympic A standard for the 3,000 steeplechase in the European racing circuit this summer. Cowart, who was a Group AA 1600 meter indoor state champion at Rustburg High School but developed leaps and bound while at Virginia Military Institute in college, last week missed the Olympic "A" standard by only .03 of a second in an 8:26 PR race ...