A number of University of Southern Indiana Men’s Track & Field athletes took advantage of one final meet to improve their season times in at the Dr. Keeler Invitational hosted by North Central College with the hopes of improving their odds of competing at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships in two weeks.
Thursday saw two runners finish the 5,000-meters, highlighted by senior Chase Broughton (Marengo, Indiana) improvising his NCAA II provisional standing with a finish of 14 minutes, 22.98 seconds, a season-best. The time in the fourth-place finish puts Broughton as the 25th-fastest in the NCAA Division II during 2017 in the event.
Senior Cain Parker (Petersburg, Indiana) turned in a 14th-place effort, finishing with in 14:46.61. Parker’s finished set a career-best in the event by over 30 seconds.
In Thursday’s field events, senior Jalen Madison (Washington, Indiana) picked up a 17th-place finish n the hammer throw with a toss of 146 feet. In the discus, Madison threw 130’08.00″ en route to finishing 19th.
On Friday, freshman Javan Winders (Mansfield Tennessee) ran a season-best time in the 1,500-metters. Finishing in 3:53.75, winders finished 17th in the event.
Junior James Cecil (Ownesboro, Kentucky) improved his NCAA II provisional standing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a runner-up performance. Cecil was timed at 9:02.78, while freshman Nathan Hall (Springfield, Missouri) also ran in the event with a time of 9:33.60.
USI athletes now await word on whether they will compete at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships in Bradenton, Florida, May 25-27. Currently, junior Bastian Grau (Höchstadt, Germany) is a lock to run with an NCAA II automatic time in the 1,500-meters and 5,000-meters, as well as a provisional time in the 800-meters. Broughton has provisional in the 5,000-meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while Cecil also has a provisional in the steeplechase. Senior Noah Lutz (Evansville, Indiana) has provisional in the 5,000-meters and 10,000-meters.
