PORTSMOUTH — Following his second NAIA National ‘A’ Standard time in as many weeks, Shawnee State’s Aiden Kammler racked up River States Conference Men’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Week honors for the second straight week, as announced by conference officials on Monday.

Competing at the Wittenberg Steemer Showcase on Saturday, Kammler posted a 8:21.59 to finish seventh in a star-studded 86-runner field at the Springfield-based meet.

The time that Kammler laid down was over three seconds faster than his fifth-place NAIA National Championship run in indoor track in 2023, where he notched an 8:24.81 to finish fifth — and obtain NAIA All-American honors as a result of placing inside the top eight in the event.

His 3,000-meter time was over nine seconds faster than it was at this same point in time last year — as Kammler ran an 8:30.76 to begin the 2023 NAIA Indoor Track and Field season at the Wittenberg Steemer Showcase last January, and his current personal-best mark also stands as a new school record, bettering his own mark to do so.

Through late January, Kammler is one of 19 runners nationally to break 8:30 in the 3,000 meters— and one of 10 to run under 8:25.

Kammler is the only RSC qualifier so far in the 3,000-meter run at either the NAIA ‘A’ or NAIA ‘B’ Standard level.

He is the seventh-fastest 3,000-meter runner in the NAIA as it presently stands.

On Jan. 20, the Shawnee State senior and Portsmouth native began his 2024 indoor campaign on a positive note at the Otterbein Invitational— as Kammler, in notching a converted 8:26.49, not only won the 14-runner 3,000-meter run, but set the NAIA National ‘A’ Standard time.

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