Blue-collar work ethic propels Indiana Kokomo to top 10 finishes

Serving as a regional campus of Indiana University, Indiana Kokomo is an accredited university that competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) for track and field and cross country. Recent solid performances - such as senior Julian Wallace’s 1:20.61 mark at 600 meters, freshman Steven Case’s 1:55 800 meter run and senior Luis Saldana’s 15:41 5000 meter time - prove that Indiana Kokomo and the NAIA can be on par with the NCAA.

“In the big picture, if you look at our conference, 15:41 (for 5000), is only about top 15. Luis’ 15:41 at the time is about 13th I think. So our conference has got at least 12 guys that are faster than that,” says head coach Josh Colvin. “Our 1:55 guy hasn’t even hit the national standard yet. So there’s a lot of guys that can really run in the NAIA. It’s no joke.”

The program at Indiana Kokomo is young, having only had a track and field program for the past seven years and a cross country program for the past 12. However, it hasn’t taken long for the team to get off the ground and start showing real promise.

“We’ve already had All-Americans, we’ve had a national runner-up as well as a national champion in our seven-year history,” says Colvin, “We’re hoping to keep adding to that list.”

The men’s team recently finished their conference indoor championships in third place, just five points back of the top team, while the women's team finished as the runner-up in the conference for the second year in a row. The mentality of the team is built on the blue-collar attitude of the midwest that the university calls home: hard work, no excuses, and getting the job done no matter what it takes.

“We call ourselves a blue-collar team and we preach that because we have to work hard.” says Coach Colvin. “We have to scratch and claw, but we’re going to be as good as anybody else that walks onto that track. We also make sure that we travel well. We stay in nice hotels. We feed our athletes well. We’re not this ragtag bunch of athletes.”

In terms of education, as the university of Indiana Kokomo is part of the University of Indiana system, a degree from Indiana Kokomo is the same quality of degree as from the main campus but at a lower cost.

“Tuition is very affordable. That attracts a lot of our athletes. We also have - in my opinion - a better situation than the big Indiana University campus,” says Colvin, “We have about 3,500 students and probably a good 1,000 to 1,500 are online, not even on campus. So what that means is that we can offer a private school experience at a public school price. Our average class size is 19 and our student to faculty ratio is 16 to 1. When you come here, you’re a person, not a number or somebody taking up a seat in a 300- or 400-person lecture.”

The team has serious goals for making an impact at the national level.

“Currently, we have six athletes who have qualified for indoor nationals. It’s the most that we’ve ever had. So already, our indoor season has been the most successful that we’ve ever had,” said Coach Colvin leading up to the recent NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championship. “We just want to go out there and compete. We want to see how we stack up against everyone else.”

The Cougars ended up qualifying seven athletes for the NAIA Championship with a top-10 finish in the 3000 meter race walk for Junior Ethan Carmean, a top-15 finish for Senior Julian Wallace in the 600, and a huge sixth place finish and school record from All-American freshman Sydney Duncan in the shot put.

Keep an eye out for the Cougars to kick off their outdoor season as they head to the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational this week (March 14th - March 16th).

Indiana University Kokomo Athletic and Academic standards

Indiana Kokomo is open to speaking with prospective student-athletes of any level who have interest in attending their school and joining their team. Athletes who are of high academic quality (GPA of 3.0 or higher) have the best chances of recruitment as there are many stackable scholarships available to them, making Indiana Kokomo very affordable.

While Indiana Kokomo are open to athletes of different performance levels, because there are limited athletic scholarships available, athletes who've exceeded the below performances may qualify for scholarship and would be a priority recruit:

• M - 16:45 5k XC, 4:40 1600m, 2:05 800m, 53.5 400m, 23.5 200m
• W - 20:45 5k XC, 5:20 1600m, 2:20 800m, 1:00 400m, 27.0 200m

Interested in Indiana Kokomo or other programs like it and not sure if you qualify?

To support your recruitment journey further we offer one-on-one advising sessions where we work with you to find the right program, with scholarships you qualify for, and build a step-by-step plan for you to take away. Click the banner below to learn more!