INDIANAPOLIS—Junior All-American distance runner Titus Winders (Mansfield, Tennessee) was named the co-Great Lakes Valley Conference Men’s Track Athlete of the Year Sunday after racking up three first-place finishes and three NCAA Division II provisional qualifying times this weekend at the GLVC Indoor Track & Field Championships.
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Winders, who earned three first-team All-GLVC honors for his efforts, began the weekend by leading USI’s men’s distance medley relay to a first-place finish and NCAA II provisional qualifying time of nine minutes, 56.34 seconds Saturday evening. Winders anchored the DMR with a mile split of 4:02.03
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He returned to the track to set a meet record with his first-place and NCAA II provisional time of 4:10.57 in the mile Sunday afternoon before concluding the meet with a first-place showing and NCAA II provisional time of 8:21.88 in the 3,000 meters.
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Winders, a two-time Midwest Region and one-time Cross Country Runner of the Year, is the first USI men’s competitor to earn GLVC Track Athlete of the Year honors since Johnnie Guy collected the indoor award in 2015.
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Joining Winders in earning first-team All-GLVC honors in the DMR was freshmen Silas Winders (Mansfield, Tennessee) and Rick Pflanz (Huntingburg, Indiana) as well as junior Madison King (Avon, Indiana).
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Senior Austin Nolan (Evansville, Indiana) also earned first-team All-GLVC honors after winning the 5,000 meters for his fifth-career GLVC Track & Field title and seventh overall counting cross country. Nolan also earned second-team All-GLVC accolades with his second-place finish in the 3,000 meters.
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As a team, the Screaming Eagles finished fourth with a score of 69 points. Sophomore Kyle Crone (Maryville, Illinois) provided a huge boost for the Eagles with fourth-place finishes in the high jump and long jump in addition to a seventh-place showing in the triple jump. Crone set a school-record in the long jump with his leap of 22 feet, 5.25 inches.
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In addition to Nolan, the Eagles also scored points in the 5,000 meters with junior Noah Hufnagel (Santa Claus, Indiana) finishing fourth with an NCAA II provisional mark of 14:39.14. Senior Wyat Harmon (Fredericktown, Ohio) was sixth, while sophomore Mitchell Hopf (Santa Claus, Indiana) was eighth.
Additionally, sophomore Lee Moore Jr. (Matteson, Illinois) was selected as USI’s nominee for the James R. Spalding GLVC Sportsmanship Award.
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USI will find out what its NCAA II Indoor Championship fate will be later this week. Several student-athletes have posted NCAA II provisional marks for the Eagles during the indoor season, with Winders being a virtual lock for the 3,000 meters.
