Eyeing great competition and fast times, several ITC athletes made the trip to Hillsdale, Michigan to compete in the Gina Relays. Two club records were set, but that alone does not give the performances the justice they deserve.
In the men’s 5000, Alex Harrison, coming off of a PR effort in the 10,000 at NCTFA Nationals, had a breakthrough race with a new PR of 15:54. Despite this being his first 5k outdoors, Alex destroyed his PR from this past indoor season by 23 seconds. It was a great race, and set the stage for a great night.
Next up was our esteemed coach, Jacob Englander. While some coaches are content to merely coach others to great performances, Jake is as much a racer and he is a coach. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a 17:11.50, another breakthrough PR.
After these performances, both Mike Spillone and Mike Frigo knew they had an opportunity to do something special in the invitational 5000. Both had already had raced extremely well at Wash U, with PR efforts of 19 and 30 seconds respectively. Yet the real racing was just getting started. In an jawdropping performance, Mike Frigo absolutely destroyed the club record and his PR of 14:39 with an amazing 14:19.20. Not far behind, Mike Spillone also set a huge PR with a 14:24.42.
The fireworks weren’t done though. In the invitational 1500, Aaron Silver ran a lifetime best of 3:52.33, eclipsing his club record of 3:54.02. Also, Pathik Gandhi set a PR of 3:58.85. With such an encouraging freshman season, the club is looking forward to Pathik improving even more over 4 full years. Alex Harrison and Mike Frigo finished their weekend with great 1500’s as well. Frigo ran 4:01.54, only a second off his personal best. Harrison had another PR effort, shaving nearly 34 seconds off his best with a 4:25.60.
With 7 PR’s and 2 new club records, this was a very successful weekend for the ITC. Next up for the majority of the club is the Dr. Keeler Invitational at North Central College on May 12-13.
