National Championships
2009
Indoor Pole Vault (17' 1.5")
2010
Indoor Pole Vault (16'9.5")
Outdoor Pole Vault (16'11")

Pole vaulter Jake Winder '10 needed just one vault to become the North Central College’s 100th individual national champion, winning the event after clearing 17’1.5”.

Winder skipped the first three heights, coming in at 16’05.75” after the 13-athlete field was whittled down to just six. The junior cleared it on his first attempt while the other five all failed to clear the height, becoming the school’s ninth individual national champion in indoor track & field and earning All-American honors for the second straight season. Winder then proceeded to clear 17’1.5”, tying the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's facility record set by Kevin Clark of Elizabethtown College (Pa.) in 2007.

He needed only two vaults to claim his second straight national title the next season, clearing 16 feet 9 1/2 inches in the 2010 championships at DePauw University.

Winder entered the competition at 16'5 1/2" after the field of 12 was down to just seven athletes. The senior cleared the height on his first attempt and was the only athlete to clear 16'9 1/2", earning his second indoor National Title and his third indoor All-American honor. Winder's performance kickstarted a North Central effort that resulted in the program's second indoor team national championship.

Winder had the chance to be one of the initial catalysts for the Cardinals at the 2010 Division III Outdoor National Championships, as North Central swept the indoor and outdoor national championships in the same year for the first time. He sailed over what turned out to be the winning height at 16'11" on his second attempt, earning him the tie-breaker over runner-up finisher Michael Dempsey of the Rochester Institute of Technology (N.Y.) Winder was one of four Cardinal vaulters to earn All-America honors in the event, providing 23 of the team's 53 points at the meet.