BRADENTON, Fla.—Despite seeing its two-year run on 10,000-meter national championships end, the No. 11 University of Southern Indiana men’s track and field team had three student-athletes earn All-America honors in the 10,000 meters and another advance out of the prelims and into the finals of the 3,000-meter steeplechase Thursday night at the NCAA II Outdoor Championships.
Senior Johnnie Guy (Palmyra, Indiana) finished fourth in the 10,000 meters to lead the Screaming Eagles, who are ninth with five points in the team standings after the opening day of competition.
From the start of the race, Guy, along with the rest of the field, faced an uphill battle as Missouri Southern State University freshman Vincent Kiprop, who was second at the NCAA II Cross Country Championships in November, bolted out to a seven-second lead in the first lap of the race.
Kiprop never let his lead slip below five seconds as it became apparent midway through the race that the real competition was for second place.
Guy, the 2014 national champion in the 10,000 meters as well as the runner-up a year ago, had a slim lead for second place for much of the race before slipping down two spots by the time the competition came to an end. He finished the race with a time of 29 minutes, 46.86 seconds, nearly 23 seconds off of Kiprop’s winning mark of 29:23.92.
Despite not winning the title, Guy collects first-team All-America honors, bringing his career totals to 15 athletic All-America awards and 17 overall. He is a four-time All-American in the 10,000 meters.
Joining Guy in earning All-America awards was junior Josh Guy (Palmyra, Indiana) and senior Tyler Pence (Springfield, Illinois). Josh Guy, the twin brother of Johnnie Guy, finished ninth in the 10,000 meters with a time of 30:32.28 to earn second-team All-America honors, while Pence, the defending national champion in the event, was 12th with a time of 31:13.39 to earn second-team accolades.
Junior Chase Broughton (Marengo, Indiana) got the action underway for the Eagles earlier in the evening as he finished 10th in the prelims of the steeplechase to qualify for the finals Friday evening. Broughton was sixth in his heat as he crossed the finish line in 9:07.80, just 4.06 seconds off the top time of the day.
Broughton will toe the line in the finals Friday at 6:15 p.m. (CDT), while Johnnie Guy and Pence will compete in the 5,000 meters Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
