Two Catawba College athletes have reached the 2025 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana. Miles Stephens and Winfred Porter both competed in the 60-meter dash prelims on Thursday.

Both Porter and Stephens qualified for the finals and as a result are now DII All-Americans. Porter ran 6.67 seconds to finish fifth, and Smith grabbed the eighth and final qualifying spot with a time of 6.68 seconds.

Miles, a junior from Bradenton, Florida, and Winfred, from Loxahatchee, Florida, are ranked 4th and 8th going into the prelims with times of 6.65 and 6.67 seconds. In a race that can be decided by milliseconds, both are hoping to make the final and bring home Catawba’s first NCAA Championship in school history.

They will compete in the final Saturday afternoon at 2:55 p.m. The event will be streamed live on NCAA.com. Look for DII Indoor Track and Field Day Three on Saturday.

Also in Indianapolis this week, Catawba swimming is at the 2025 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Both events are a part of the NCAA Winter Championships Festival that includes swimming and diving, wrestling and indoor track and field. The swim team is represented by 16 men and women in various relay and individual events.

My back accident happened on May 15 in a hay field at about 5 p.m. I was admitted to the trauma unit at Atrium Health in Concord shortly after 6 p.m. I was told just before midnight that I would have rods and pins surgically inserted in and around my spine at 7 a.m. the next morning. At about 6:30 a.m., I declined the surgery. What began at that time was one of the most important sagas of my life. What also began was a long battle with Aetna Medicare Insurance.

I was fitted with a back brace that same morning and had physical therapy twice that afternoon. I could barely walk, and my body was beat up, but that day began what now amounts to a 10-month recovery period through Saturday.

The battle with insurance started about three months later in late August when Novant sports medicine back specialist Dr. Eugene Eline requested approval for the kyphoplasty that would rebuild my two most damaged vertebrae. We were denied insurance coverage with Aetna’s scattergun (listing multiple reasons) approach and then two more separate appeals with plenty of documentation supporting Dr. Eline’s recommendation were all denied. Never by a person who could be talked to, but by mail and once by telephone message.

In the meantime, with all the denials and days passing, I decided to pay for the surgery myself, all the while in hopes that we would eventually win the appeal, and then my down payment would be reimbursed. Novant Health was great and didn’t press me during this appeal and denial process. Dr. Eline and his assistant Erica Martin R.N. repeatedly helped with answering questions and copies of testing.

Eventually, it came down to a final appeal to Federal Health and Human Services. We had an initial court hearing by phone scheduled in January that was continued until Feb. 20 because Aetna didn’t call in. We did have the February hearing even though Aetna still didn’t call, but otherwise it was well done by the judge. Her ruling arrived by fax on March 7. The ruling — kyphoplasty costs do not have to reimbursed by Aetna because my reasons for needing the procedure had not been addressed in Medicare rules.

A long-time running friend and ultramarathoner who just happens to teach math and statistics at Catawba College once sent me his breakdown of the costs per mile of multiple brands of running shoes. I thought it was funny at the time.

Today, I added up all the costs for my lifestyle-saving kyphoplasty and took a similar approach. I’ve had just over 570 miles of running since the procedure, so I added up the costs paid to Novant Health today. Some simple division says each mile has a cost of $27.72 at this point. Another 180 miles gets me to my goal of 100,000 lifetime running miles. At that time, the cost per mile decreases to $21.07. Better yet, after 20,750 post surgery miles over probably the next 15 years, we’re down to 76 cents. I’ll be super happy about that. Another reason to keep running!

Our next race is the Mt. Hope Run for Missions 5K on March 29 at Salisbury Community Park. Look for this and other events at www.salisburyrowanrunners.org.