Four individual titles and an Athlete of the Year Award highlighted the men's weekend at the CCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships.

The Bees, hosting in the brand new Wellness and Recreation Center, took third as a team, matching their finish at the inaugural indoor conference meet last year. Olivet Nazarene won the meet with 229 points, beating reigning champs St. Francis (216) points. The Bees finished with 174 points, far out-distancing fourth place, Calumet-St. Joseph's who had 49 points in the 10-team meet.

All-American Cole Connell faced adversity during a weekend that saw him compete in 12 events. For his work he was honored as Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Field Athlete of the Year for the second straight year.

Connell crashed in the hurdles of the heptathlon after rerunning it due to a timing malfunction. With his nationals hopes dashed, Connell continued to compete hard, finishing 6^th in the event. He then battled to finish second in the high jump, fourth in the pole vault, fifth in the long jump and eighth in the triple jump. He also scored in the 60m hurdles.

The Bees other All-Americans also stepped up, winning conference titles on the track. Jack Reemtsma took home the crown in both the 60m hurdles and the 400m dash. Rane Nichols used a kick in the final 50m to take home the crown in the 1000m dash, beating the reigning national champion in the process.

Anthony Peters captured the crown in the 3,000m race walk while national runner-up Emilio Mancha took home the silver.

There were lots of other All-CCAC performances during the meet as well. Josh Pestka was chasing Nichols down in the 1,000m dash and was able to capture the bronze. The two paired up with Pestka and Alex Bala to earn the silver in the 4x400 relay. Bala also earned conference honors in the 4x800 relay teaming up with Clay Colborn, Justin Christiansen and Peter Runions to take third.

Senior Matt Svoboda almost pulled off the upset in the heptathlon, finishing second by just 23 points. He ran a personal best in the day's last event, the 1,000m, to give himself a chance at the crown.

Freshman Alec McEylea started to make a name for himself. He not only scored in a pair of events, but earned conference honors along the way. McEylea placed second in the long jump and third in the 200m dash.

"All in all it was a good meet for us," SAU head coach Dan Tomlin said. "We're going to continue to set the expectation at winning a conference championship, and we did all we could do this weekend to accomplish that goal. It was great to get contributions from as many people as we did and our leaders did a great job leading."

Next up for the Bees in the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships in Pittsburg, KS.