LOUISVILLE, Ken. – University of Southern Indiana Men's Track & Field tallied nine top-10 finishes at the Bellarmine Open Friday evening. As a team, the Screaming Eagles finished eighth out of 14 teams, claiming 25 points.
 
USI found its best finish from junior Kyle Crone (Maryville, Illinois) who earned third place in the long jump with a leap of twenty-one feet, nine inches before taking home fourth place in the high jump with a height of 5' 10.75". Sophomore Rick Pflanz (Huntingburg, Indiana) also nabbed a top-five finish in the 800 meters with a time of one minute, 57.61 seconds. Leading the pack in the 3,000 meters was junior Mitchell Hopf (Santa Claus, Indiana) after crossing the finish line at 8:27.06 to claim fifth place.
 
The Eagles had more success in the long jump with sophomore James Butler (Evansville, Indiana) and junior Lee Moore Jr. (Matteson, Illinois) earning sixth and seventh, respectively. Butler had a leap of 19' 11" while Moore was inches behind, ending with a 19' 9" jump. USI also had three top-10 finishes in the mile with senior Noah Hufnagel (Santa Claus, Indiana), sophomore Brady Terry (Philpot, Kentucky), and Hopf going eighth, ninth, and 10^th, respectively. Hufnagel ran a time of 4:15.19 with Terry (4:15.98) and Hopf (4:16.04) finishing less than one second behind.
 
NEXT UP FOR THE EAGLES:
The Eagles continue the 2023 campaign when they travel back to Louisville, Kentucky for the PNC Lenny Lyles Invitational hosted by the University of Louisville from Friday January 27 to Saturday January 28.