LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Juniors Madison King (Avon, Indiana) and Titus Winders (Mansfield, Tennessee) posted first-place finishes, and each flirted with school records Friday to lead University of Southern Indiana Men’s Track & Field to a fifth-place finish at the Bellarmine Open.
King finished first in the 800 meters with a personal-best time of one minute, 54.16 seconds, while Winders won the mile with a career-best and NCAA II provisional qualifying time of 4:04.79.
The 800-meter time King posted ranks second all-time on USI’s indoor 800-meter list and was less than a second away from Jesse Davis’s record time of 1:53.29, which he set during his All-American performance at the 2006 NCAA II Indoor Championships. It also was just 1.31 seconds shy of an NCAA II provisional qualifying time.
Winders’ effort in the mile ranks third in Division II (as of Friday night) and was just 0.35 seconds shy of USI Hall of Famer Ben Kapsoiya’s school-record time of 4:04.44, which he posted at the 1999 NCAA II Championships. Bastian Grau’s time of 4:04.51 at the 2018 Arkansas Qualifier ranks second all-time on USI’s mile list.
In addition to the 800 meters, King also helped USI’s 4×400-meter relay team to a fifth-place finish, one of nine top-five performances for the Screaming Eagles, who racked up 56 points on the day.
Freshman Rick Pflanz (Huntingburg, Indiana) and senior Austin Nolan (Evansville, Indiana) were each third in the 800 meters and mile, respectively, while junior Noah Hufnagel (Santa Claus, Indiana) finished fifth in the mile.
Sophomore Kyle Crone (Maryville, Illinois) was fourth in the long jump and fifth in the high jump. His mark of 21 feet, 2.0 inches in the long jump was an indoor personal-best.
Rounding out USI’s top-five performances was sophomore Josh Kaminski (Lafayette, Indiana), who was fifth in the shot put with a heave of 45’0.25″.
USI heads back to Louisville next Friday to compete at the Campbellsville Invitational at the Norton Sports Complex.
