Hufnagel PRs in 5,000m, USI women shatter rare mark

DES MOINES, Iowa—Senior Noah Hufnagel (Santa Claus, Indiana) notched a personal-record to lead University of Southern Indiana Men’s Track & Field at the Drake Relays, while the Screaming Eagles’ women shattered a record in an event they rarely compete in during their final weekend of the regular season.
 
Hufnagel raced to a 10th-place finish in the 5,000 meters Thursday night, crossing the finish line with a personal-best mark of 14 minutes, 2.73 seconds. His effort ranks him seventh on USI’s all-time outdoor 5,000-meter list.
 
The Eagles’ men had just three student-athletes competing this weekend, with junior Mitchell Hopf (Santa Claus, Indiana) and sophomore Luke Heinemann (Georgetown, Kentucky) competing at the Clark Wood Open in Louisville, Kentucky.
 
Hopf was unable to finish in the 5,000 meters, while Heinemann scored a 27th-place finish in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:11.14.
 
USI’s women had just four student-athletes competing at the Drake Relays this weekend.
 
Junior McKenna Cavanaugh (New Albany, Indiana) and senior Kara Martin (Herrin, Illinois) posted respective finishes of 12th and 29th in the 3,000 meter steeplechase Thursday, while senior Emma Brown (Evansville, Indiana) was 19th in the 800 meters.
 
Brown, Cavanaugh, Martin and freshman Emily Rempe (Owensboro, Kentucky) comprised two different relays on Friday. After tallying a seventh-place finish the 4×1,600-meter relay, an event USI has no recorded history in, the quartet raced to a third-place finish in the 4×800-meter relay later in the evening.
 
The quartet shattered the program’s all-time record in the event Friday by finishing in 9:06.36, nearly 50 seconds faster than the previous record of 9:54.90, which was set in 2001. USI last competed in the 4×800-meter relay in 2017.
 
USI concludes its first season of Division I competition when it competes at the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships May 11-13 in Edwardsville, Illinois.