ROCHESTER, NY—McMurry only had two athletes competing at the NCAA DIII Indoor National Championships in Rochester, New York, over the past weekend. Reagan Owen (Sonora, TX) participated in the weight toss, and DonTre Sinegal (Benbrook, TX) entered the 60m hurdle, long jump, and triple jump.

Reagan Owen qualified in the weight toss and went in as the 11th seed. He went in the first of two flights, winning his flight with a personal best and school record 19.48m to advance to the finals. In the finals, about an hour later, he throws and comes a couple of centimeters short of his previous best. "For him to stay locked in over that long period of time, that was super impressive," Head Track & Field coach Cody Knight said of Owen's efforts. "That's very rare. Normally, folks out of the first flight don't make the final, and then oftentimes, they don't do so well when they're in the final." He added, "For a senior to do that and to do their very best at the moment where it matters most, I don't know what else you could ask for." 

Finishing the event in fifth place, Reagan said of the experience, "Competing at the national meet is less about how you perform and more of how you approach the situation. I told myself that I could not allow my emotions to impede on my performance. So, I approached this meet as I would any other meet, knowing that I may not be the best in building and that I could only be competing against where I have been. Also knowing what I need to do to become the best version of an athlete that I could be in the moment. All of the hard work that I have put into this program has paid off, for the indoor season anyway. This experience has been nothing short of a blessing. McMurry Track and Field has shown me how to become not only a great athlete but also a great leader. Being able to compete at the Nation Meet has always been a dream of mine, and finally being able to compete at that level while being healthy was absolutely exhilarating."  Owen would earn 1st Team All-American for his efforts.

DonTre Sinegal would start the first day of competition in the 60m hurdles preliminary round, looking to reach the finals. Though Coach Knight thought he looked great, he added, "You know, just things happen. Hit a couple of hurdles, and you know, you probably have the deepest field in the history of Division Three." The deep field included five runners capable of breaking national records at any race, and with DonTre not running his best race, he was unable to advance to the finals. 

DonTre, later in the day, had the long jump competition, and he was able to put the disappointment of not reaching the finals in hurdles behind him and could compete at a high level. With another deep field, he would need to be at his best and, during the event, matched his lifetime best of 7.5m, or the equivalent of jumping from the high school three-point line and your hands hitting the backboard and your bottom hitting the baseline. He would end the event in third place, finishing behind 2nd place by one centimeter. Coach Knight said of his efforts in the triple jump following the 60m hurdle run, "He responded as well as anybody I think could have, and I think that's a great character trait that DontTre has and so yeah, really proud of him there." 

Sinegal would go into Saturday with one final event to compete in, the triple jump. He would take the lead with a leap of 15.29m heading into the final jump. DonTre would outdo himself and increase his distance to a personal best and school record 15.33m, but would ultimately lose his lead to a close friend and competitor from Cortland State who outjumped DonTre by two centimeters. Coach Knight mentioned the two athletes' bond: "As soon as the young man from Cortland State jumps, DonTre is halfway down the runway watching. And as soon as the result came in, the first guy who ran to him was DonTre. And they hugged each other. And they're, they're both excited."

Reflecting on the meet Sinegal would say, "Coming into this meet I was already feeling a bit overwhelmed and excited because I came into the meet healthy with no hiccups. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I had a chance to go be great." And though the meet didn't line up as he had hoped, he did have this to add, "Overall, not a bad weekend obviously wish I did better but still did great. Proud of how I kept my composure after how bad hurdles went, but as John Witherspoon says, "You win some, You lose some, But you live to fight another day". On to outdoors we go!"

Sinegal, through his work and efforts, earned two more All-Americans, bringing his career total to ten.

Coach Knight would go on to add of DonTre and Regan's character, "And again, when you think about our core values here at this school and then I look and how Reagan and DonTre not only just performed, but how they behaved at that meet. I can't imagine any student-athletes representing a city better. And that's what I took out of the meet more than anything was just the character of our men."

McMurry also achieved a remarkable feat as a team, granted a two-man team, of ranking 8th overall at the meet. Owen and Sinegal performed well and earned points for McMurry, which put them on the leaderboard with team champion Wisconsin La Crosse, who brought twenty-plus athletes to the Indoor Championships.

"You know, if you look at every school that beat us, they have large staffs and large teams, and we went in with two great warriors, and they put up big points," Coach Knight would say about his team going up against teams with larger rosters. "So I'm very grateful for eighth place." 

"By only bringing two athletes to the national meet and finishing top eight as a team, I am proud to represent McMurry Track and Field, demonstrating that we are a force to reckon with. I could not have done it without our dominant coaching staff and amazing teammates," Reagan would add.