By: Mark Reinhiller
With two events remaining in the NJCAA Division III Track and Field Championships, the two-time defending champion College of DuPage trailed in the team total by one point against Mineral Area College.
Enter the 5,000-meter run and star freshman Nicholas Keeling. The reigning cross country individual national champion stepped up and won the event and teammate Axel Huerta finished fourth.
The two combined for 14 team points, while Mineral Area earned only four in the event. That 10-point swing put the Chaps in front for good, and COD won its third straight national Men’s Track and Field title.
The team title is the seventh in program history and caps an academic year at COD as the fourth team national championship, joining men’s cross country, women’s volleyball and football.
COD earned five individual titles — Noah Mack in the 100 and 200, Keeling’s 5000-meter victory, Jack Sauder in the pole vault, and Sheldon Powell in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 4x100 and 4x800 relays.
Chaparrals named to the All-American First Team were Mack, Keeling, Powell, Saunder, Derek Erdman (4x100, 4x800), Gabriel Parker (4x100), Graham McAninch (4x100), Randy Almarales (4x800), Sebastian Esparza (4x800) and Anthony Eddy (4x800). Named to the All-American Second Team were Eddy (1,500) and named Honorable Mention were Caleb DeBoer (10,000), McAninch (400 hurdles) and Thomas Kling (decathlon).