Glen Ellingson, Josh Barrows and Olivia Montez Brown Nationals bound

Day one of the NSIC Indoor Championships started like any other meet. Sophomore Josh Barrows and senior Glen Ellingson wanted to compete at their highest levels, but what happened was surprise even to them.

Both runners broke NSIC Championship records in their respective races. Barrows in the the 800 meters and Ellingson broke the 3,000 Feb. 24.

“I didn’t actually know what the conference record was going into the race,” Barrows said. “I kind of found out after the race like ‘oh hey, by the way, you kind of broke the record.’”

During the 800, Barrows finished first in his preliminary heat with a personal best time of 1:52.62, breaking the previous record of 1:52.93 set in 2015.

“I think that the team as a whole, nobody really performed horribly,” Barrows said. “There weren’t any bad things that happened, so overall I think everyone is really satisfied. As far as a team, we had some really big people perform well. Obviously Paul [Meloche] in the hurdles and Glen of course.”

Ellingson: Finished first in the 3,000, receiving All-NSIC honors and finishing with a personal best time of 8:16.97. He broke the old NSIC record of 8:25.37, as well as Augustana’s school record of 8:17.17 set in 2012 by Tom Karbo.

“Breaking the school record definitely means more to me,” Ellingson said. “I was still really excited [about breaking] the conference record, but we have all of this tradition and all of these people I’ve looked up to. So cementing my place in Augie history means a lot to me.”

A day after beating the conference time in the 3,000, Ellingson broke the conference time in the 5,000 as well. Finishing with a time of 14.39.66, he broke former teammate Keegan Carda’s record, set last year. “Overall, I think [the weekend] was very positive,” assistant coach Scott Tanis said. “There was good and bad, but mostly good. You’re never going to have a perfect conference meet, but I think it was very positive and something we can all move forward with.”

The next few weeks will be rest time for the team before starting outdoor track. But Barrows, Ellingson and sophomore Olivia Montez Brown, who qualified in both the pentathlon and long jump, will be traveling to Birmingham, Ala. for  the National Indoor Track and Field Championships Mar. 9.

“It’ll be Josh and Glen’s first time ever qualifying for track,” Tanis said. “Glen has gone a few times for cross-country, but never for track, and that was a goal he had set for himself early on. Josh and Olivia are both still young, so it’ll be a lot of fun for them to be there. All of them have pretty high goals. I think we would be selling them short if we didn’t think all three of them wouldn’t come back with All-American titles.”