It was an evening filled with record setting performances this past Friday night, as the Illinois Track Club traveled to Eastern Illinois for the EIU Friday Night Special meet. A total of 6 club records were set: 4 for the women, 2 for the men.
In the women’s 400m both Caitlin Blalock and Lauren Jonen surpassed the club record, recording times of 1:03.38 and 1:03.71 respectively. They then teamed up with Erin Murphy and Lauren Henderson in the 4x400m, bettering the club record by over 6 seconds in a time of 4:16.21. Kaleigh Evans ran 1:43.92 setting a new record in the 600m.
Other performances of note include a 4th place finish in the mile by Megan McGreal (5:25.36) and a 5th place finish in the 800m by Thea Cudnowski (2:28.47). Megan Mocogni, Michelle Turner, and Paige Oboikovitz finished within 3 seconds of each other in the mile, while Monica O’Connor and Beth McGreal raced well in the 3000m.
For the field events, Erin Murphy surpassed the club record in the triple jump with a new personal best of 9.72m. Minyona Mason as well set a new personal best in the shot put, with a throw of 6.77m.
On the men’s side Ryan Jorgensen broke a historic record, surpassing Mark Talbot’s 1000m club record of 2:37.97, with a time of 2:32.77 capturing 1st place. Greg Netols had the top finish for the team in the mile, finishing in 4:30.85, while Brendan McDonnell and Andrew Gazdziak ran 9:04.66, and 9:05.26 respectively in the 3000m. Not too be outdone by his brother, Kevin Jorgensen would run 1:59.79 in the 800m. In the 5000m, Alex Harrison finished in 16:23.27.
For the third time this season the 60m dash record was broken; Fuad Akinbiyi reclaimed the record with a time of 7.11. Andrew Cholewa had the top time for the team in the 400m, running a personal best of 53.60, followed closely by Ryan Brewster in 53.72. Other top sprint times included Matt Halberthal (23.45) and Moobie Salami (23.91) in the 200m and Ben Kanevsky (54.37) and Jeremy Wood (54.92) in the 400m dash.
Illinois Track Club will host the Illinois Club Relays in the U of I Armory this Saturday, their final indoor race of the season.
