Results
Bloomington, IL – One Knox men’s indoor track school record fell and another was nearly set on January 28 as the Prairie Fire competed at the Titan Open, hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University.
Senior Kevin Box (Naperville, IL, Naperville North) set the new all-time mark in the mile while juniorJoe Puntoriero (Cheektowaga, NY, Cleveland Hill) was less than a quarter-second shy of topping the record in the 200 meter dash at IWU’s Shirk Center.
Three members for each Prairie Fire team scored points and combined for two top five finishes and three top six.
Box finished the mile in 4:27.56 to earn points for the Prairie Fire by finishing 6th, and in doing so he topped the previous record by more than seven seconds.
Box passed teammate and current sophomore Gabe Moreno (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg ) on the event’s all-time performance list. Moreno broke a nearly seven-year old record when he ran the mile in 4:35.08 on January 15, 2011 at the Knox Invitational, his first college indoor race.
Puntoriero moved up to second on the all-time list in the 200 meters with his time of :22.99, which earned him a 3rd place finish in the race. He was just .12 seconds shy of tying the school record of :22.87 in the event by Scott McCarty in March of 1999 during the Midwest Conference Indoor Championships held at Knox.
Puntoriero is associated with five of the 10 fastest times in school history in the 200 meter dash with his performance at the Titan Open. He also scored for the Prairie Fire in the long jump with a leap of 5.85 meters and 8th place finish.
The men's team also received a strong performance from junior Sean Choate (Chicago, IL, Chicago Academy). He ran the 5000 meters in 16:12.82 for a 4th place finish. His time is a career-best and ranks #8 on the all-time individual list in the 5K. Choate's previous fastest time, which ranked 10th on the individual list, was 16:22 last season.
The Prairie Fire men finished 10th out of 12 in the team standings with 13 points. Host Illinois Wesleyan won the team title with 152 points. Lincoln College (130), Greenville College (77), Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (57), and Maryville University (54) rounded out the top five. The Fire finished ahead of Culver-Stockton College and Quincy University.
The Knox women's team had two runners score points in the 3000 meters. Senior Brenna DeGan (Naperville, IL, Naperville North) placed 7th with her time of 12:49.69. Sophomore Huong Bui (Portland, OR, Cleveland) crossed the finish line in 13:19.42 for 8th place.
Sophomore Catie McLaughlin (Roscoe, IL, Hononegah) also added points with her 7th place finish in the weight throw and 8th in the shot put.
Illinois Wesleyan also won the women's team title with 173 points, well ahead of runner-up SIUE's 70. Olivet Nazarene University (66) placed third, Greenville College (64.5) was fourth, and Lincoln College (51.5) placed fifth. Knox finished ahead of Fontbonne University and Culver-Stockton College.
The Prairie Fire squads are back in action on February 4 at the Jim Green Classic hosted by Illinois College.
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