After spending most of the day waiting to finish the quest it had set upon, the North Central College men's track and field team had just enough left in the tank to achieve its goal of a fifth NCAA Division III Indoor National Championship on Saturday, Mar. 11, 2017, coming through in the meet's final event to record a historic victory at Al B. Carius Track.

The Cardinals finished with 34 points to tie the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse atop the team standings, marking the first time in the history of the indoor championship two teams had shared the title. North Central was also a part of the only shared national championship outdoors, tying Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) for first place in the 2000 national finals, also held in Naperville.

"It was nerve-wracking the whole day," said North Central head coach Frank Gramarosso after seeing his team win its first national track and field title since 2012. "We were anticipating getting some points at the end of the day, but anything can happen. It was great to have the whole team here and do this at home. and now we get to hang another banner."

Having rolled up 26 points in Friday's first day of competition to surge to a large early lead, North Central had three events left in which to take part on Saturday. Adam Poklop opened the day for the hosts with a 13th-place finish in the high jump (six feet, 3 1/2 inches), and the Cardinals were idle until Dhruvil Patel and Zach Hird took to the track for the 3,000-meter run near the end of the meet. Patel added a second All-America award to his haul for the weekend with a seventh-place finish (eight minutes, 23.62 seconds), while Hird placed 11th (8:25.78).

That left only the 4-by-400-meter relay, in which North Central and Wisconsin-La Crosse were both entered. The Cardinals held a four-point lead over the Eagles heading into the race, and North Central's quartet of Daniel Spaccapaniccia, Zach Kirby, Ben Nordman and Peyton Piron had been apprised of the situation facing them before the gun went off.

"I opened my mouth and went to the clerking area, and I told them, 'If La Crosse wins the 4-by-4, we have to be third in order to tie,'" Gramarosso said. "They said, 'Don't worry coach, we've got it.'"

The competitors showed no ill effects after being informed of the stakes, finishing with a season-best time of 3:17.20 which ranks them as the fourth-fastest relay squad in North Central's history indoors, though Wisconsin-La Crosse did finish ahead of the Cardinals in 3:15.81. With one final heat of the relay remaining, all North Central could do was wait and watch.

The University of Mount Union clocked a time of 3:16.97 in the second heat to place second, but the tie for first place in the team competition was sealed when Bethel University's team finished just shy of the Cardinals' time in 3:17.55.

"That was the longest three minutes and 17 seconds of my life," Piron said. "I don't think it's hit us yet. It's really unbelievable. I have no words for it."

The Cardinals' relay team earned All-America accolades for the third time as a group, having done so at the indoor and outdoor national championships in 2016.

The Cardinals opened the competition the previous day by scoring 15 points in the meet's first event, the pole vault. Two-time defending indoor champion Luke Winder returned to the top of the awards podium for the third straight time, and his fifth national title overall, after just two trips down the runway. He opened competition when the bar moved up to 16 feet, 8 3/4 inches, after much of the field had been eliminated, clearing the bar on his first attempt. 

He then waited until the bar rested at 17'0 3/4" to vault again, once more clearing on his first attempt and sealing the victory. He made three unsuccessful attempts at 17'6 1/2" before calling an end to his day.

"A lot of people said we had a home-field advantage," Winder said. "The things that we did have, sleeping in the same bed, eating the same food, and staying in the same routine, that was the biggest advantage. There was a lot of stuff that did change, and that was something to keep in mind, but it was nice being at home because it reduced the nerves and tension. It was a really fun experience."

North Central got a boost in the vault from senior Spencer LaHaye, who made the most of his first appearance in the indoor national finals and scored a fourth-place finish with a personal-best clearance of 16'4 3/4". Each of his final two successful vaults, at 16'0 3/4" and 16'0 3/4", came on his third and final attempt, as he earned All-America honors for the first time after entering the meet with a qualifying mark which ranked him 14th among the 15 competitors.

"I'm not sure it's real." LaHaye said. "The amount of things adding up in this story, from me having this date circled for four years and qualifying, this is my mom's first time ever watching me compete. There's just a lot of things going on, and to PR, you can't ask for much more than what's happened today. I'm just really grateful everything's come together the way it has."

The Cardinals have now claimed 13 individual national championships and 57 All-America awards in the pole vault alone.

Late in the day, North Central got a significant scoring contribution on the track in the 5,000-meter run. Patel, after biding his time near the back of the pack early on, moved up through the field and into sixth place heading into the final lap. Summoning a furious finishing kick, he moved up four places to second over the final 200 meters and hit the finish line in a lifetime-best time of 14 minutes, 28.15 seconds, making him the seventh-fastest in the Cardinals' history indoors and delivering eight points for the team.

"Last year, one of my teammates who I also went to high school with (Tim Vazquez '16) got third place at indoor nationals," Patel said. "I asked him what his best piece of advice was, and he said just to stay out of trouble in the back and when the moves are made, just start going. So that's what I did. I felt good throughout the entire race. I didn't feel like I was straining at all at the end."

North Central tacked on three more team points in the final event of the day, the distance medley relay, as a strong finish in the 1,600-meter anchor leg by Zach Hird moved the Cardinals up five spots after he took the baton and brought the team home with a finishing time of 10:03.72. Ethan Adlfinger opened the race with the 1,200-meter leg, with Josh Martin running the 400 and Chris Buechner manning the 800.