This past Thursday, a large group of ITC went to Naperville, IL for the North Central Dr. Keeler ready to race fast for possibly the last time this season. That was the plan, but mother nature had her own plan. It started raining hard on Naperville, IL, the 5k”ers were able to finish their race and moments after Senior Greg Netols finished his 1500m run, a rain delay was put on the track. A delay was inopportune for many of our runners, as finals week was creeping just around the corner, and many runners traveled back to Champaign before their races started. Only Senior Steven Decker, who was looking to extend his 800m record, remained.
Overall, the inclement weather made it tough for our runners to race their goal times. Graduate Student Brad Coyle led ITC in the 5000m, finishing at 15:30.61, a little slower than he had raced at the national meet. The whole meet went kind of like this, as Greg Netols ran his 1500m at 4:03.56, and Steven Decker ran his 800m in 1:55.19. These guys have really had phenomenal seasons, so you can imagine the conditions that would lead to all of them having less than phenomenal races.
The following Saturday, THE Relay team (Szostak, Ayers, Murphy, Jonen if you haven”t been following) traveled to Dekalb to compete at the NIU Huskie Open. For the past two weeks, they had been hundredths of seconds away from breaking the 4 minute barrier in the 4x400m relay. Junior Lauren Jonen (Head Coach elect) tried her darndest, splitting a 57.024 (56.99 according to Coach Jack Skelton), but the team hit another heartbreaking miss of 4:00.63. It is doubtful that they race again this season to give it another try.
Upcoming:
As many students take their finals, a small group of distance runners return to Naperville to finish their seasons at the North Central College Gregory Invite.
