Christmas came early for ITFC in the form of 3 wins and 2 new club records. Many sprinters and middle-distance runners attended Illinois Wesleyan University’s Titan First Chance Invitational after months of stale armory air and intense training.
In the women’s 60m dash, veterans Becky Haight and Kaleigh Evans ran PRs of 8.10 (new club record) and 8.76, respectively. Newcomers Dalemarie Johannesson (9.29) and Jasmine Williams (8.64) showed that their fall training block was not for nothing. Jasmine has been involved with the club a great deal at social events, practice, and volunteering opportunities.
In the 200m, Coach Haight won in a time of 26.56. She is very fast and will be getting faster. Her athletes Jasmine (28.50), Ciara Ward (30.91) and Dalemarie (31.42) have lots to look forward to as well.
IWU offers a 300m run because this is America and we run whatever we want. Lauren Grant came through as the top Illinois runner in 45.97. Shout out to both Dalemarie and Ciara who ran the 200m and 300m.
After a big week of applying to graduate schools, Emily Foley showed that she’s on the hunt for a big mile PR. Being the lone woman in the chase pack, she ran a new club PR of 5:37.79. This senior is going out with a bang.
In the 4x400m relay, Becky Haight, Kaleigh Evans, Lauren Grant, and Jasmine Williams got 4th with 4:19.13. These ladies were running on tired legs as each of them had run at least one race before.
U of I’s pole vault crew was represented by Ciara Ward (8’ 8.25”) and Kat Leiner (9th in 9’ 2.25”).
The men’s races were highlighted by Justin Nebel. He had a big day running 7.39 in the 60m dash and winning (!) the long jump. On his second attempt, he put himself 6 inches past second place and into club history. He is now the best long jumper with 22’ 3.5”, a foot over jump coach Lopez’s mark. His mark would have won last year’s NIRCA national meet by 24 centimeters.
The 60m dash showcased new faces including Shantanu Amin (10.39), Tyler Muckian (7.83), and Evan Sacks (8.19). Thomas Harris also ran 7.46 and was recognized by Coach Haight for having the best attendance at practice this month. That sort of dedication carries our team to the next level.
Taking a strong leadership role this year, Mateusz Lopez has a lot on his plate. Managing a general body of over 100 athletes with issues of money, space requests, social events, team bonding, competition, and travel is hard to say the least. But these responsibilities have not shaken this All-American as he won the 200m in 23.29. In 11th place was Thomas Harris in 24.00 as well as Tyler Muckian (26.52) and Evan Sacks (27.71). You can’t help but feel excited when you see dedicated members finally getting their chance to compete and grow.
As if a full lap at full speed wasn’t fun enough, both Thomas and Evan competed in the 300m as well. If IWU offered a 400 I bet they’d run that too.
Mid Distance Coach Keith Lee has some big boots to fill. After last year’s men’s 4×400 won the National Title in 3:18.47 (all returners) and went sub 8:00 and sub 10:00 in the 4×8, there’s not that much room for improvement. Beau Barber explained how the training this year is much more speed based with 150m buildups and plenty of fast moving.
In the 600m, Keith Lee ran 1:24.84 to take 4th place in the meet and 4th in the club leaderboards. His athletes Zack Fishman (1:30.24) and Tim Plomin (1:30.46) look sharp and ready to bring some fire in middle distance races. Tim is a real newcomer to the sport, having ran track only once before. But if he is already running 90 second 600s in December and battling it out with veteran mid distance runners like Zack, I think he’ll find that this is his sport.
The lone cross-country runner, Josh Mollway ran 4:29 in the mile to win his heat by 8 seconds. After a week of low-mileage, he’s ready to get into the swing of track season.
Connor murphy ran 9.41 in the 60m high hurdles and qualified for finals where he finished 7th in a time of 9.43. A true renaissance man, he also pole vaulted 13’ 5.25”.
The 4x400m relay of Tyler Splitt, Beau Barber, Tim Plomin, and Zack Fishman took 9th in 3:40.42. Tyler Muckian and Mateusz Lopez also competed in the triple jump hitting 38’ 1.5” and 41’ 5”, respectively. Lopez was the national runner-up last year in this event and, if Muckian sticks with it, we could see two All-Americans from our happy little club.
ITFC prepares for a big block of solo training over winter break and then many more races to come, including the annual Illinois Club Relays meet on February 24th.