PITTSBURG, Kan.—A night after becoming the fifth student-athlete in University of Southern Indiana Men’s Track & Field history to win a national championship, junior Titus Winders (Mansfield, Indiana) accomplished something no other performer in school history has ever done: win a second national championship in the same meet.
Winders erased a 50-plus meter gap throughout the last 600 meters to finish first in the men’s 3,000 meters Saturday night at the NCAA II Indoor Championships.
Much like he did in his 5,000-meter win the previous night, Winders surged from the back of the pack to claim the victory. He was in 18th place 600 meters into the race and in 16th at the midway mark.
Winders jumped six spots to 10th at the 1,800-meter mark and moved up three more spots to seventh at the 2,100-meter mark. Winders made his move in the home stretch of the next to last lap as he jumped five spots to second place heading into the final lap, where he ran down race-leader Ryan Riddle (Missouri Southern State University) before out-kicking Grand Valley State University senior and runner-up Isaac Harding in the final 200 meters.
After becoming the first student-athlete in program history to break the eight-minute mark in the 3,000 meters less than a month ago, Winders broke his own school record with his time of seven minutes, 57.01 seconds. He ran the final 300-meter lap in 40.82 seconds to edge Harding by 0.63 seconds and set a new track record in the process.
With his two national championships, Winders scored 20 points for the Screaming Eagles in the team standings, which were good enough for 10th in the team standings. Grand Valley State won the team title with 66 points, while Ashland University was second with 49 points.
Winders, who recorded USI’s 11th and 12th individual national championships on the weekend, became the third student-athlete in program history to win multiple national championships in the same academic year. USI and GLVC Hall of Famer Elly Rono won three national championships (cross country, indoor 5,000 meters, outdoor 10,000 meters) in 1997-98, while Tyler Pence won two national championships (indoor 5,000 meters, outdoor 10,000 meters) in 2014-15.
On Friday night, Winders won the 5,000 meters with a school, track, and meet-record time of 13:38.92.
USI is schedule to begin the outdoor track & field schedule March 25-26 when it competes at the Margaret Simmons Invite in Murray, Kentucky.
