When a bar fell on Kurt Kinkead during last Monday's weight lifting session, it knocked the freshman out, and later he felt a slight pain in his back along with a feeling of stiffness.
Kinkead was unsure about competing in last Friday's Findlay Open, having practiced only three days with the men's track team in the week prior to the event.
"I felt I had come too far to drop out of this meet, and it was too close to the (Mid-American Conference Championships) to use an injury as an excuse not to compete," Kinkead said.
The injury proved to be a mute point as Kinkead went on to win the 400-meter dash at Findlay with a time of 50.10 seconds and was part of the winning 4x400 relay team that had a season-best time of 3:21.40.
"I've been training hard and even though it was a surprise for me (to do so well) it was a good experience," Kinkead said. "I was glad to have something positive come about from this."
The team had 28 top-eight performances at Findlay, including a Malcolm Athletic Center record set by senior Paul Panning in the pole vault at 17 34.
Freshmen Eric Lewis, Kyle Gilbert and Kyle Widbin are emerging as the team's top 800 runners with finishes of fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively. However, head coach Jermaine Jones said he believes there needs to be someone in the 800-meter run to consistently put up top finishes.
"To be honest, we don't have a top (800 runner). That's an area that's probably going to be a work in progress for us all year," Jones said. "In those middle distance races, we're still looking for somebody to step up."
Another top freshman performance came from Corey Miller, who finished second in the 55-meter hurdles at 7.77. Kinkead took fourth in that event at 7.85 while sophomore Eric Noe finished seventh at 7.98.
In the triple jump, junior Jason Howard finished second with a jump of 46-0. followed by teammate Melvin Anderson in seventh place at 44-0.
The Cardinals travel to Bloomington for the Hoosier Hills Invitational this Friday in their final meet before the MAC Championships on Feb. 27. BSU traveled to Bloomington earlier this season for the Indiana Invitational Feb. 6.
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