Nats has been on our radar for a very long time. The meet was abruptly moved from Bloomington to Shelbyville due to construction issues and put a strain on the club finances. But thanks to some phenomenal administrative work from Michael Jang and Noel Brindise, as well as the leadership from Head Coach Splitt and President Mateusz’s board, we got to Shelbyville Indiana safely.
A little bit about Shelbyville. It has a population of 19,191 as of 2010 and was home to the tallest women (Sandy Allen 7’ 7) until 2008. 21st Vice-president Thomas Hendricks (served under Grover Cleveland) was from Shelbyville. Easy, breezy, beautiful, Shelbyville.
We’ll start with the field events. Inga Augustatius was a key returner for the women, racking up 14 points on her own in the shot and discus. She took 3rd in shot (9.43m) and PR’d in the discus (29.14m) for 2nd.
In the long jump, Illinois athletes did some expected damage taking 2nd in the women and 1st in the men’s long jump. Ashley Raehsler jumped 5.10m (16-08.75) and Justin Nebel jumped 6.52m (21-04.75m). I don’t like to toot my own horn, actually I do, but I believe I said that Nebel would win the Nats long jump and here he is. His teammate Doug Howard jumped for 12th. In the men’s discus, Liam Nassib had a great throw of 33.39m to take 4th. Zach Sawickis was just out of scoring in 10th and freshman Kelvin Cross was in 12th.
In the triple jump, none other than Ashley Raehsler took 2nd in 10.50m and is now #3 on the club leaderboards. Mateusz Lopez took 5th for some much-needed points.
You already know Lauren Grant is having the times of her life this year. PRs indoors and outdoors, this grad student can race. She ran 27.64 in prelims and took 6th in the finals and was followed by Jasmine Williams who took 12th in 28.42. I see a future sprint superstar like Jonen, Haight, Grant etc. in the making. Jasmine is working hard and under Coach Haight’s guidance, she can make some noise next year. Shan ran 31.82 and his previous PR was 33.56. After a year of training this guy is making big strides as an athlete and a teammate. A testament to the sprint crew’s depth was that 3 men made it to the finals. Lopez, Bienduga, and Barch all qualified. Unfortunately, Garret Barch messed up his hamstring in the 4×1 that had been bothering him for a few months. In the finals, Bienduga took 4th in 22.81, Lopez 7th in 22.85, and after 1 minute and 28 seconds, Garett Barch walked across the line with an ice pack on his hamstring to claim a single point for the Illini. Big props to Garret for being a team player all year. He tried hurdles for the first time at club relays and does whatever he needs to for the team. Hope his hamstring gets better 1 like = 1 respect.
In the 4×8, McDonough, Foley, Haworth, and Yathaputanon ran 10:20.25 for 7th place. The men’s 4×8 dominated the club record for second place behind a strong Minnesota team. They ran 7:53 to take 2nd and a 6-second club record. Congrats to Lee, Splitt, Kellum, and Mollway. Mollway had taken 2 weeks off from training with an ankle/Achilles injuries and only managed to get a few workouts in the past month but still evenly split a 1:57.
The 5k was run in some pretty nasty conditions but Josh Feldman ran 15:47 for 16th overall and a PR. The #2 runner was Connor Farrell who ran 16:00 for 27th overall. I personally think the time, though solid, reflects the conditions rather than his training. It was the best race he’s had in a while which is always nice to hear at Nationals. The women battled even worse conditions early on Sunday morning. Abby Ludwig ran 22:02 and Noel improved by 20 seconds to run 20:11.9. Vicky Dent PR’d in the 5k with even splits running 19:54.
In the 400, Lauren grant took 6th with 63.86 and Malorie Moore showed up big to take 8th place and secure an important point with 64.73. Maggie Madden had a huge lifetime PR with 72.31. At club relays, she split 76 seconds. For the men’s 400, Mateusz Lopez took second with 51.36 out of the second-fastest heat. Splitt scored a point with 52.37, also in the second-fastest heat.
The women’s 4×100 took 6th in 55.50 and them men were third, despite Garret hurting his hamstring halfway through his leg and having to slow down. They were about to hammer home a win with a massive lead and even with the hamstring issue they took third.
The men’s 800 was quick with Keith Lee running 1:58.81. Throwback to his first two years where breaking 2:00 was a good day and now it’s routine. Sean McCarty ran 2:00 flat and trains solo most of the time due to his loaded coursework and research. Evan Patel ran even splits for 2:07. He started in dead last and moved to third and wore braids instead of his usual flowing locks. He said, “Having hair not boucing everywhere felt nice”.
Maggie Madden had another big PR with 2:53.36. A week ago she ran 3:00. Maia Haworth ran 2:37.78 and has been consistent as ever this past XC and track seasons. Emily Foley ran an aggressive race to take 5th in 2:25. She was “so so happy” with “one the best races [she’s] ever run probably”.
In the 1480/1500 Emily Foley also ran well and ran 5:05 converted. Grace McDonough also showed why she’s on the upswing and has no intentions of slowing down. She put down a 5:19! For the men’s 1500, Mollway led the way in 4:06 in a very, very, fast heat. Evan Patel crushed his old PR of 4:35 with a 4:24 mark. Zack Fishman threw down the hammer in his heat and no one could respond. He had at least a 30m lead on everyone behind him.
Michael “One Speed” Frintner has given the club running community a lot. After a standard 5k, he got badly spiked in the 1500 the next day. Like, very badly spiked. A real champ, he finished the race and ended up having to get stitches. The man is unstoppable.
The 100m dash was highlighted by Becky Haight driving from her chemistry GRE and freshman Jasmine Williams running 13.81 to just barely miss qualifying. Alex Bienduga also qualified for finals for the men. In the finals, Haight ran 12.55, breaking the meet record of 12.59 held by Lauren Jonen. In the last few meters, she tweaked her hamstring and had to end her season there. Alex Bienduga ran 11.50 to take 7th in the finals.
With Becky out, the women’s 4×4’s All American status looked iffy. But everyone stepped up big time. Julia Schultz, injured from a fall and off her peak training came to race. So did Lauren Grant who ran the 100, 200 prelims, 200 finals, 400, and 400 hurdles, and 4×100. Emily Foley ran the 4×800, 1480, and the open 800. Malorie Moore was in the 200, the 400, and 4×100 and was probably feeling those three races from the day before. Nevertheless, they put together a very aggressive race and took 3rd for that well deserved All American status! The men’s A and B team 4×400 dominated their heats and showed NIRCA why we’re the deepest sprint/mid D crew in existence. The A team won Nationals in 3:26!
In the end, the women tied for second with 64 points with the University of Michigan (we kept the trophy ayyyyy). Penn State was 1st with 154 points.
The men took 4th behind Wisconsin and Michigan who also tied for second.
I know I’m posting this after Peaks happened but stay tuned for another write-up!