Gone is the USC squad that ran the fastest indoor 4x400m in world history (3:00.77) in 2018, but otherwise every other relay team from last year’s fast section at NCAAs is back in the premier heat at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships. 

Even without the likes of Michael Norman and Rai Benjamin in Birmingham, a heavy dose of star power from each of Texas A&M, Houston and Florida will put the world record on notice once again— Houston and A&M both clocked 3:01.5 in February, while the Gators ran 3:01.4 a year ago and still have track and field superman Grant Holloway.

It’s to no one’s surprise that these collegiate heavyweights have run their way back onto the relay’s biggest stage-- they all finished top five outdoors in 2018 as well-- but the story is much different for Western Kentucky, the fourth and final team to qualify for the loaded race. WKU shocked the collegiate track world on Feb. 24 at the BU Last Chance Qualifier when they ran 3:04.24 in Boston, more than a three second improvement on a school record that had stood for over a decade.

From a 3:08.07 previous season’s best that ranked outside the top 30 times in the NCAA, the quartet of Lincoln Warren, Oliver Alexandre, Kymari Gates and Martin Owusu-Antwi hit a buzzer beater on the final day of qualification that launched the Hilltoppers from obscurity to the upper echelon of the sport. Suddenly a team who didn’t even win their conference 4x400m-- they lost the C-USA title to Middle Tennessee State, then beat them by over four seconds in Boston-- had booked a match-up with relay royalty.

Western Kentucky's school record-breaking 4x400m on Feb. 24:

Unlock this video, live events, and more with a subscription!

Sign Up

Already a subscriber? Log In

With March Madness quickly approaching in college basketball, it’s easy to label Western Kentucky as the closest thing to a track and field Cinderella team, even if they don’t want to acknowledge as much. Losing a 3:09 race one week and then scoring a spot in a possible world record relay the next week will do that to a team. But WKU insists their mark was no fluke.

“As far as time, it’s just important finally coming together and running for each other. More exciting than anything else, finally seeing it click how it was supposed to a long time ago,” said former Nebraska runner Oliver Alexandre, who is the team’s lone athlete with previous NCAA Indoors experience.

“It’s finally an opportunity to actually run with people that’s just as fast as us. Stepping on that type of track with that type of competition usually brings the best out of you so I’m more excited to have that type of opportunity to actually go out there and compete.”

Loved seeing our record-breaking 4x400 relay squad recognized during today's @WKUBasketball game! #GoTops pic.twitter.com/9epkA8nFJ5

— WKU Track & Field (@WKUTrackField) March 3, 2019

The dramatic improvement in Boston was enough to believe some seismic shift had transpired within the mid-major program from one week to the next, that the unheralded four and their coach Erik Jenkins had unlocked a new formula that had been missing previously. Jenkins did move around the order of the legs for a new lineup, but he says the breakout performance really owes to the incremental build-up that forms his training. 

“There’s always going to be a lot of teams that run incredibly fast early, we’re just not going to be one of those teams,” said Jenkins. “Just simply because of the way our training is set up, the way our finances allow us to travel to certain meets and even our scholarship limitations.”

Those financial limitations are certainly not minor, either. Western’s track and field budget was slashed in half three years ago as a result of athletic department cuts, despite the fact that Jenkins had helped produce dozens of All-American athletes and conference titles since his hiring in 2008. The cuts restrict WKU to a tight travel budget, meaning opportunities to run fast are often few and far between.

But along with a lack of an indoor facility that often forces them to get in work in the bitter Kentucky cold during the indoor season, the Hilltoppers have embraced their situation as a part of their identity.

“Coming into a program where we don’t have the equal opportunities as most other schools, it’s a big thing for me personally just the fact that I’ve seen my own improvement off the fact that I don’t have a facility to practice in all the time,” said Alexandre.

“Dealing with it’s snowing some days, dealing with the fact that we’re inside like in the arena all the time. In my case I think it’s pretty impressive when you think about it. The fact that we can accomplish certain things and have the lack of opportunities and the lack of facilities that most other schools have.”

And while the WKU men have all the makings of a classic underdog, a team that might be content just to be in the surprising position they are in, the squad made up of four senior transfers scoffs at the notion. Instead, they view their 3:04 as a sign that they are ready to go toe-to-toe with the three 3:01 teams ahead of them.

“We’re not starstruck. We’re coming here to just compete. We’re coming in focused. We all feel like we deserve it, so once again, ‘Why not us?,’" said Kymari Gates, a JUCO transfer who split 45.6 in Boston.

Alexandre agrees. Even with the long odds, WKU will go into Saturday night truly believing they can win.

“We’re not going there just conceding the fact that we’re just WKU or something like that, and we’re [not] just going to go in and say, ‘Yeah, let’s just see how the race goes.’

“The whole goal is to win. There’s no doubt about it. I already felt like I’m crossing the line as a champion anyways going into any race.”