University of Southern Indiana sophomore All-American Titus Winders captured his second consecutive NCAA II Midwest Region title Saturday with his first-place finish at the regional meet. His effort helped the No. 9 Screaming Eagles to a third-place finish out of 31 teams and to secure a berth into the NCAA II National Championships, which are November 23 in Sacramento, California.
Winders took an early lead in the race and stayed within the top five runners throughout the competition. The reigning Midwest Region and Great Lakes Valley Conference Runner of the Year pulled into the lead in the final three kilometers and put eight seconds between himself and the second-place finisher—Chris Stimpfel of Saginaw Valley State University—by race’s end as he finished with a 10-kilometer time of 31 minutes, 5.8 seconds.
His performance was vital in the Eagles’ effort to secure an automatic bid to the national meet as senior Austin Nolan, who has jostled with Winders as USI’s top performer throughout the year, was dropped out of the competition early in the race.
USI got a huge boost from its traditional No. 3-7 runners as senior Nathan Hall along with juniors Grady Wilkinson, Gavin Prior and Wyat Harmon all finished within 11 spots of each other and inside the top 40 overall. Hall was USI’s second to cross the finish line for the Eagles as he was 28th overall with a time of 32:33.3. Wilkinson was 29th with a time of 32:42.2.
Prior and Harmon finished 37th and 39th, respectively, while senior Javan Winders rounded out the Eagles’ lineup with a 69th-place finish in the 216-member field.
No. 3 Grand Valley State University took home the team title with a score of 52 points, while No. 8 Michigan Tech University was second with 116 points. USI finished with 134 points, while No. 22 Walsh University and No. 14 Saginaw Valley State University were fourth and fifth with respective point totals of 146 and 155.
USI secured its 15th consecutive trip to the NCAA II National Championships and its 27th overall.
