This Saturday marked the best competition both ITC Men and Women have faced in a NIRCA national championship to date.
Women Highlights:
The women’s 4x800m relay started the scoring events strong as Senior Thea Cudnowski, Sophomore Selena Wallace, Sophomore Hannah Behle, and Freshman Lexy Rudofski broke the outdoor club record with their 4th place effort of 9:54.27. During that race, Wallace PR’d by 5 seconds, running her split in 2:25.9. Right before that race, Abby Ralph set a new 100m hurdle record with her 7th place performance of 17.12s.
However, after 10 events ITC was down 99-63 to Penn State. With such a large deficit, our sprinters kicked it into gear. Junior Lauren Jonen won the 200m (26.23s) and the 400m (58.40, club record). Graduate Student Erin Murphy won the Long Jump (5.03m), Triple Jump (10.94), placed 2nd in the High Jump (1.52m), and 2nd in the 400m hurdles (1:09.46). The relay team consisting of Junior Caroline Szostak, Sophomore Jess Ayers, Murphy, and Jonen placed 2nd in the 4x100m (50.35s, club record) and won the 4x400m (4:04.57, best time in our current database). 2 people that could also qualify as late heroines are Junior Lauren Choi and Freshman Anna Piazza, as they had EXTREME PR’s in the 3000m steeplechase. Choi PR’d by 23 seconds to finish 3rd (12:17.68, club record), and Piazza PR’d by 30 seconds to finish 5th (12:49.17). All these efforts led to a final score of 147-145.5, ITC’s closest margin of victory in a national competition.
Men Highlights:
The men, although not victorious, placed 2nd with some very good performances. Thrower Ross Romane took home 1st place in the shot put (12.84m, club record) and the discus (39.58m, club record). Altogether, throwing events secured 42 points for ITC. The other major source of the men’s points came through Freshman Matt Lopez’ winning flight in the triple jump (12.96m, club record), Senior Tyler Blum’s 4th place high jump (1.88m, 2nd best in club history) and Graduate Student Jonathan Hoff’s winning long jump (6.51m, club record) and 3rd place effort in the 110m high hurdles (15.81, club record). Jumps secured another 27 points.
On the track, Senior Steven Decker placed 3rd in the 400m (50.26), while Senior Jayme Roberts placed 6th in the following heat (51.36s). Their 4x400m team with the addition of Freshmen Tyler Splitt (a surprise replacement following his 52.98s 400m earlier) and George Gunter also placed 3rd in the meet (3:27.63). Senior Adam Cobert and Graduate Student Brad Coyle duked it out and both PR’d by around 10 seconds in their close heat of the 5k, finishing 6th (15:23) and 7th (15:24) overall, respectively. Senior Evan White followed suit with the rest of his season, finishing 5th in the 1500m (4:02) after splitting a 1:58.9 in his leg of the 4x800m. Cobert was our second finisher in the 1500m (4:06), but returning members Sophomore Mike Mayer (4:12), Freshman Jack O’Neil (4:15), and Freshman Brian Griffin (4:18) were our third to fifth best. The men scored 124 points, 18 shy of the distance powerhouse Indiana.
