St. Thomas senior all-American Mike Hutton won the 800-meter Division III championship Saturday to lead the men’s track and field team to a fifth-place team finish at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Grinnell, Iowa.

A four-time all-American, Hutton clocked 1:52.26 to edge runner-up Jake Waterman of Wabash College (1:52.55) by .29 of a second to claim his first NCAA title.

“It was pretty nuts,” Hutton said. “It was kind of a dream come true… your dreams coming together, your goals coming together.”

Hutton also said he is grateful for all of the fans who made the trip to Iowa.

“We had people from St. Thomas: alumni, I had some family members, all of the other guys had some family members… even some coaches from some other teams made the trip down to watch the meet, and they were rooting for the MIAC guys,” Hutton said. “It was a pretty good experience.

Hutton won the Tommie men’s 11th individual NCAA crown, the first individual title for St. Thomas in 18 seasons. The previous 10 titles were all won in field events.

Junior Eyo Ekpo earned 13 team points for the Tommies, placing second in the triple jump with a career-best jump of 50-2.

Ekpo was just four inches behind triple jump champ Mike Sandle of University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Sandle is an Eden Prairie, Minn., native.

“Eyo had a huge PR on his last jump to push him from fifth to second,” Hutton said.

Ekpo also placed fourth in the high jump in 6-9 3/4.

Senior Ben Sathre, who was the NCAA Division III cross country champion for the 2011 fall season, placed fifth in the 5,000 (14:25.41). Though most runners would be happy to finish in the top five, Sathre said he was disappointed with the results.

“I felt terrible today,” Sathre said. “I don’t think I ran that well.”

Sathre said he’s been battling a cold for the last couple of days.

“I had trouble breathing,” Sathre said. “I fought well, and I’m proud of what I did.”

Sathre said that he will be taking a few weeks off to recover but will then begin preparing for an outdoor 5K and possibly a 10K as well.

North Central (Ill.) took first with 48 points followed by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (37), the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (32), the University of Wisconsin-Stout (28).

The Tommie women tied for 20th. The women earned five team points Friday with a fourth-place finish in the distance-medley relay.

“It was great; we all had really good times,” sophomore Emily Van Heel said. “We were all pumped; it was only our second time running it, so I think everyone did awesome actually.”

Van Heel also competed in the triple jump Saturday, finishing in 15th place.

Ryan Shaver can be shav7005@stthomas.edu.