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Official Championship Site
Complete Results
Day One Recap
Team-by-Team Scoring Summary

GREENCASTLE, Ind. (Mar. 12, 2010)-- Winning three events and scoring in three more, the North Central College men's track & field team emerged from Depauw University's James A. Hollensteiner Track on Saturday with its first Indoor National Title since 1989, besting a field of over 65 institutions.

The Cardinals were crowned National Champions after scoring 52.3 points and claiming nine All-Americans. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point was second with 34 points while the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse finished third with 31.5 points, edging out the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh by 1/2 point.

Dan Benton continued where he left off on Friday, racing to a second place finish in the finals of the 400-meter dash, clocking a 48.68 and fending off a late charge by Thiel College's Alex Eaton down the final stretch, earning his first of two All-American accolades at the championships.



In the 800-meters, Jacob Austin settled into third in the early going but was unable to keep pace with the leaders, eventually finishing eighth in 1:57.91, earning All-American accolades for the first time in his career.

Kyle Brady cemented the Cardinals' victory, racing to the win in the 5,000-meters, becoming the Cardinals' second individual National Champion of the meet. The senior hung in the back of the pack for the first two-miles of the race before starting to make a move with under a mile to go. Brady slowly passed up the competition until with 400-meters left if was just Brady and the State University of New York-Geneseo's Lee Berube in contention for the title. Brady out-kicked Berube, comfortably winning in 14:47.97.

"At the beginning of the race I was very tactical. That all paid off in the end when, with a mile to go another runner made a move. I finished eighth last year so obviously this was a big improvement," said Brady.

"When I came around the final turn I saw all my teammates and fans cheering and yelling like crazy. That gave me a big boost of adrenaline and propelled me to the championship."

North Central's 4x400-meter relay squad of Jon Howard, Jon Caron, Dayton Henriksen and Benton captured the event to close out the meet, as the Cardinals claimed National Titles in the final two running events on the track. The relay sat in second place until with one lap remaining, Benton passed UW-Stevens Point to win heat two in 3:17.22. UW-La Crosse won the third and final heat but were unable to match the Cardinals' season-best effort, finishing runner-up by nine-hundredths of a second.

Robert Kapustka was the lone competitor in the field during day two, placed 11th in the shot put with a toss of 52 feet 1/2 inch. His mark was four inches shy of cracking the top nine and advancing to finals.

The Cardinals had five All-Americans in day one of competition with four coming in the pole vault. Jake Winder won the event for the second straight season, clearing 16'9 1/2" while Thomas Stacey, John Wood and Peter Geraghty finished third, fifth and eighth, respectively. Matt Borchardt was North Central's fifth All-American on Friday, placing sixth in the pentathlon with 3,545 points. Winder was additionally honored as the Field Athlete of the Meet.

"This was unbelievable. So many variables came together right in the pole vault and I think it helped the rest of the team out seeing that, especially having two freshman in the vault and two freshman in the relay," said Winder. "We took the talent that we had and made the most of it."

Under the leadership of head coach Al Carius, the Cardinals have now captured six National Titles in track & field, with two coming indoors and four during the outdoor season. Carius has also guided the cross country squad to an additional 13 National Titles.

"I was pleased with the momentum they had yesterday," said Carius. "We had a complete track & field team here today: distance, mid-distance, throws, jumps, sprints. I told them at the start of the season to focus on the process and what we can control and the rest will take care of itself."

North Central opens up the outdoor season on April 2, hosting the First Chance Invitational at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.