Two weekends ago, the middle-distance and sprints core traveled out to Oxford, Ohio to find some stellar competition at the Miami Invitational. They certainly got what they were looking for and more as several of our ITC athletes had stellar days of competition.
Starting with the sprints crew, Lizzie Gauen had a good day of racing, doubling a 28.49 200 with a 1:04.20 400. Both are solid efforts from the young sprinter. On the men”s side, both Matt Halberthal and Fuad Akinbiyi did the same double, Matt running 11.23/23.28 and Fuad 11.52/23.50. Those are some good middle of the season times for the younger members of our sprint crew and we are very excited to see how they progress heading into Nationals. The time from Matt is a seasonal best and also heads the NCTFA 100 meters list. In the 400, Jack Skelton broke 50 yet again, going 49.88, which is another solid effort from our sprints coach.
Moving up the distances, our middle-distance team ran well in another marquee meet. Megan McGreal doubled the 800/1500 in 2:24.33/5:09.01. While neither time was a PR for Megan, it was still a good race effort in both events for the sophomore. Meanwhile Ryan Jorgenson reset his own club record in the 800, running 1:55.07, though he is hungry to cut more time off of that come championship season. Mike Brothers ran 1:59.65, and Alex Manaois sped to a 2:02.47 to round out our athletes in that event. In the 1500, Zach Boehmke ran 4:17.33, with Arthur Eng right behind him in 4:18.99, both credible times from the underclassmen.
Lastly, but certainly not least, Vignesh Karthikeyan moved up in distance to the 5,000 meters and ran an excellent race, running 15:43.93. That time places him high atop the NCTFA lists for that event and well within the top 10 all-time for the club. I think Mr. Karthikeyan just found himself entered in a new event at Nationals.
That was all the action from two weekends ago at Miami of Ohio, check back soon for the recap of this past weekend when the Illinois Track Club had a split-squad at Benedictine and Wheaton!
