This past weekend, the Illinois Track Club traveled down to St. Louis to compete in the Washington University Invitational to prepare for the big test this upcoming weekend at NIRCA Track Nationals. The Wash U invite was split up into two days, with the 5000m runs and triple jumps on Friday April 1st, and the rest of the events on Saturday April 2nd. Although the weather was cold and windy, there were many strong performances going into Nationals.
From the women’s side, there were many solid outings all across the board. The women’s performances were kicked off on Friday by both freshman Sara Folliard and junior Emma Burkhardt who ran 19:17 and 19:35 respectively. Also from the distance squad, sophomore Megan Frintner also had a very good 1500 race despite the conditions coming through in a 5:56.30. Sprinters Lauren Jonen and Becky Haight kept the ball rolling with great individual performances in the 100, 200, and 400m dashes as well as the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Abby Ralph showed she was not finished crushing club records by breaking her old club record from last year with a great time of 16.08! Ali Djokic was everywhere from throws and jumps, to sprinting and hurdling events, but in the midst of all the craziness, she was able to have very good toss in the discus with a throw of 21.78m while also going 8.85m in the triple jump. Speaking of throws, Diana Kowalski made her club debut with a discus throw of 27.39 meters! Emily Foley also had good steeplechase performance with a time of 13:01.
Like the women, the men also had many strong performances across the board. Starting with the sprints, Joe Haight had a great last day with the club before going up to varsity by recording a 10.68 and club record in the 100, and also a club record and first place performance in the 200 with a time of 21.71! Good luck Joe (we will miss you). Also from the sprints squad, Jacob Baier and Bill Frentzas (in his club debut and first ever track race) ran well with times of 23.91 and 28.28 respectively in the 200m dash. Keith Lee from the Mid D squad had a very good 800 race with a time of 2:01.56. In the 1500, Ryan Somerfield, Brian Griffin, and Muneeb Ansari ran very smart races, despite the torrential wind on the back stretch. In the high jump, Hameed Odunewu recorded a solid mark of 1.80m. In the throwing events, Morris Wang threw very good in the shot and discus with marks of 10.52, and 25.91 respectively. In the steeplechase Ryan Kelch ran well with a time of 10:22. Finally on Friday, both William Wolf and Michael Frintner ran great 5000m races with times of 15:36 and 15:46 respectively.
With so many great distance performances, it was long time distance coach Steve Krauklis who got the ITC Official Interview. Check it out!
With that, Nationals starts on Friday with the 5ks and continues through Saturday with the rest of the events. Stay tuned on twitter to get live updates, and otherwise, get hyped because it’s just about time!
