Graduation season starts, Track and Field season ends. ITFC was able to close out the season at two North Central College meets.
The first was the Dr. Keeler meet that saw four men race. Josh Mollway ran the 5k in a time of 15:32.74. His goal was 15:45 and was a bit worried about his low mileage. But this is the same Mollway that ran a 1:57 leg at Nationals relays after some injuries. His splits were very even and it’s a great way to close out the season.
In the 400, Beau and Mario ran 54.57 and 56.87, respectively. That’s a 0.8 second PR for Mario and 0.1 second PR for Beau. Big congrats to Mario on his club career, Cornell is lucky to have you <3.
Josh Feldman walked into Naperville to take names. His season was focused on slow, steady progress instead of big breakthroughs. He PR’d in the 5k in nasty conditions. He ran a 4:36 mile while developing a cold at Peaks. In the 3k steeple, he had PR’d this season with a time of 10:00.29. Just a half step over sub 10:00.
Here is an excerpt from his log:
“The first lap was around 75, then around 77 and 78. Towards the 5th and 6th laps, I started to fade a little bit mentally an” d I kind of didn”t think I would PR. But with one lap to go, I heard another coach yell ‘”You have to run a 78 to break 10! I knew I could run a 78, so I really started pushing as hard as I could cause this is my last race of the season. I passed like 4 guys and had a really strong kick. My final time was 9:54.19 which was my first time under 10 and a 6-second pr.”
Josh is now the 2nd fastest steepler behind Chris DeSilva. The club record is 9:36.50, in case you were wondering…
Later in the week, North Central hosted another meet for D3 athletes trying to get Nationals qualifying marks (or for club runners looking for a good time).
Michael Jang ran 11.76 for the 100m dash. Though not a PR, he ran into 2.2 m/s headwind. If you took PHYS101 you can do the math yourself, he was moving fast. His PR is 11.42 from Club Peaks.
Malorie Moore doubled in the 200/400 running well in both.
In his final race as a club member, having already graduated, Sean McCarty ran 2:01 in the 800.
Now it’s time for some well-earned rest. Big things are coming this next XC season, HAGS.”,2018-05-18 23:00:00+00,Outdoor
238,Josh Mollway,Early Season Racing at EIU,”After a wonderful winter break of training, we had four athletes go to the John Craft Invite at Eastern Illinois.
Jacob Avenaim started off for the Illini in the 60m dash. He came in at 7.31 which is only a single second off of being on the all-time top 10 list for our club! This freshman has a bright future ahead of him, for sure.
Also running in the 60 was Thomas Harris who finished in 7.34. Coming off a PR from the early bird, this is a great start to the season for this senior. Thomas also ran an impressive 23.7 in the 200.
John Brandenburg rounded out our 60m runners with his 7.58. This was his second best 60m performance so just wait until these 10pm practices start kicking in. John also came back later in the 200 with a 24.65.
John Kellum ran a solid 4:45.68 in the mile and 2:06.84 in the 800. Though these weren’t quite what he was hoping for, he has true dedication and the hard work will start to yield some results soon enough.
Great job to these athletes on a successful early meet. With the meet being shifted a day earlier, some athletes planning to compete were unable to attend.
The Illinois Track Club competes next at Illinois Wesleyan University on Saturday, January 26th.”,2019-01-23 11:05:00+00,Indoor
232,Josh Mollway,IXC Dominates Regionals on Home Turf,”In team sports, the term ‘home advantage’ describes the benefit that the home team is said to gain over the visiting team(s). Through constantly training on it, we as a club have gotten to know the arboretum quite well. It came as no surprise, therefore, that almost all 80 of our racers were comfortable on Saturday morning walking around at the NIRCA Great Plains Regional Championship course for 2018. We knew that course better than anyone on any other team. We expected the tough 800m back loop, we knew what it was like to run up that hill countless times, and we knew when we needed to start our kicks. IXC had the home advantage once again (we also hosted back in 2014 and 2015), and our runners’ performances reflect it.
With only 8 total teams, the fields were relatively small. 170 men total. 102 women total. Packs of Illinois runners could be seen all throughout the field.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5…GO! The men’s 8k was off and almost immediately the Illini grouped up and moved in packs. Josh Mollway finished 2nd in 26:32 after moving up the majority of the race. Ryan Somerfield ran a strong race up front and kicked hard to finish 3rd in 26:39. Butcher, after hitting a couple hundred mile weeks in a row, finished in 26:56. After some mileage droppage in the upcoming weeks (still nothing below 80; let’s not get too crazy), Butch should be primed for a perfect Nationals race. Jean Rasmussen ran another very strong race, nearly cracking 27 again in 27:03. Behind him was Justin Ostrem running well in 27:15, with Josh Feldman improving on his time from Lewis with a time of 27:19. Rounding out the men’s top 7 was Eli Walker who used the pack running to his advantage to run a solid 27:20.
Richard Skogsberg (he’s our head coach) has been hitting pretty steep mileage these days as well and was feeling it in his legs on Saturday. Still, he ran 27:27 and is looking forward to running an 8k he’s proud of at Nationals. Connor Farrell ended up with 27:31 after going out a bit too fast, but he knows he can learn from it and stay mentally strong to race well at Nationals. Every race is a new opportunity. This was only Nikita Smyrnov’s second 8k and he came in at 27:36. With some tough competition at Nationals, no doubt he’ll drop a sizeable PR in Lexington. Colin Kirkham raced 27:46 and Evan Patel ran an impressive 27:54 on the unofficially confirmed long course. Nathaniel Oomen, in his first race of the season, dropped a 27:58 with calf-cramping Matt Beckerman right at 28:00.
Jarod Meyer ran 28:11, determined to break the 28 minute barrier at Nationals. Cody Lund ran only a few seconds behind his Lewis time with 28:18, which should turn into a sub 28 performance come Nationals. Michael Gerkin raced his first 8k of the season at the arb and ran 28:28. Alex Hanskat was next in 29:02 after having to deal with stomach issues for much of the race. With a fresh mindset and a cured stomach, I certainly believe that Hanskat can have the race he’s been waiting for in 3 weeks.
Jordan Meyer has slowly and quietly been grinding out workouts, races, and long runs and his progress is evident. He ran 29:13 and will be ready to reach his peak when the time comes.
Sean Frintner is unquestionably the man of the day, in my eyes. The entire experience on Saturday can be credited to Sean’s coordination and hard work. This man does not just show up on Wednesdays with rakes, people. He puts in an incredible amount of work behind the scenes to make sure our racing experience at the arboretum goes as smoothly as possible. Beyond this success, he ran 29:14, a time he hasn’t gotten close to touching since his freshman year and felt amazing physically and mentally while doing it. Remember when I said that moment would come and it would be glorious? Bravo, Sean. Bravo. And thank you for all you did to make Saturday the success that it was.
Liam Bots was next in for our men. He ran 29:16 and is excited to make big gains in Kentucky. Lucas Carrillo finished in 29:32. This being his first race since Aurora, he was able to PR by over 15 seconds! Right behind Lucas was Andrew Walmer who ran 29:35. Alex Kogen raced hard to finish in 29:47, and Patrick Willhalm accomplished his goal of wanting to break 30 with a 29:49 performance. Daniel Engel ran 29:51 on some stiff legs, but is excited for what he can do after decreased mileage. Blake Duncan had a rough race, finishing in 29:54 and then throwing up. Just wait until he’s THROWING UP ON THE COMPETITION AT NATTIES! (maybe don’t actually do that, Blake).
Kevin Callahan had a retreat planned for this weekend and missed the first day to race with his friends on such a lovely day for a race. He ran 30:12 and we greatly appreciate him showing up. Tim Green raced 30:33 and Muneeb Ansari came in at 30:36. Muneeb raced on this course for NIRCA Regionals his freshman and improved on his time from then by over a minute. Going into his final Nationals, Muneeb looks forward to flexing our team’s depth in the B races. Eric Bayer and Matt Dickinson came in together in 30:38, with Zach Scheffel shortly after in 30:40. Running again on pretty fatigued legs, Dickinson looks ahead to the mileage drop and what he can do at Nationals.
Nathan Saltzman dropped 3 seconds from Lewis with 31:15, but hey, any improvement is good. Ari Machtinger dropped a huge PR with 31:25. Bryan Himmel had a bit of a rough day with 31:33 but has one more race this season to show what he can do. Olan Bruyere ran 31:52 and David Creger was right after in 31:54. Olan experimented with starting conservatively and being more competitive throughout the race. Thomas Chavez ran his first race of the season fittingly on the home course and came in with a time of 32:02. Nathan Ehrenhofer ran 32:05 in his first race back from injury. Three weeks of training is definitely enough time for him to gain back some ground and do damage in Kentucky. Nick Schuster was next in 33:11.
John Feeley ran a huge PR of over a minute with a time of 34:06, showing that consistency and moderation pays off. Derek Engelbrecht finished in 34:59, with Robert Chun (35:56) and Sean Norris (36:03) racing their first races this season. Nate Sun came in at 36:31 to improve drastically from his Lewis performance. Leonel Rodriguez suffered an achilles injury just days before Regionals, but knowing that he could not race Nationals without finishing Regionals, he toughened up and showed true grit as he came across the finish line. I know I speak for everyone when I say that we wish Leonel a speedy recovery because we want to see him succeed in his last cross country race more than anything. Rounding out the men in this race were Cameron Smith, who ran 37:42, and Tim Zmudzinksi, who ran 39:49 in his first race of the season.
On the girl’s side, we once again saw incredible pack running and teamwork as our ladies pushed each other to do their best.
Leading the women again were Emma Burkhardt, Anneliese Schulz, and Julia Schultz, who embodied the picture perfect image of pack running. All three of these women ran smart, confidently, and showed NIRCA that they mean business. Burkhardt PR’d by 29 seconds with 23:14 and Schulz PR’d by 7 seconds with 23:19. Schultz is continuing to take steps in the right direction with her 23:38 performance. Watching these 3 compete in Lexington is going to be a show.
Next in for the women was Grace Gudwien who has just continued to get better and better. She ran 24:11 for a 28 second PR! Mia Bertaud closely followed in 24:24 which also was a personal best. Vicky Dent finished in 24:41 and is motivated to have her best race at Nationals. Noel Brindise came in 7th for our women with a time of 25:07. Clare Oehler PR’d by a few seconds with her time of 25:22, and Sara Folliard, in her first race of the season, accomplished her goal of sub 26 with 25:37. Tiffany Yathaputanon’s chest is still feeling a bit tight, but with it improving she was able to run 25:44, and she stays optimistic regarding what she can do at Nationals. Emily Condic raced hard to finish in 26:05.
Lindsey Schmidt didn’t know what to expect coming into her first 6k, but she managed to run an impressive 26:55 after having the goal of being in the 27s. Let’s hope she runs Nationals! Grace McDonough came into the race nervous about shin splints she’s been dealing with, and struggled to remain focused throughout the race. Though she didn’t have the race she wanted, she is a strong woman who is always able to look on the bright side of things and take something out of them. Brianna Legner raced 27:40 in her second 6k, and came in with confidence, knowing what to expect and how to approach the race. This was nearly a minute and a half PR! Sam Gonski also had a huge PR, running 27:55 after her 28:50 performance at Lewis. Congrats on the massive PRs, ladies!
Lucy Jensen raced her first collegiate 6k, and finished with a time of 29:16. Natalie Maguire finished in 30:06 after being able to continue moving up throughout the race. Next in was Adriana Miltko in 31:10 who was extremely happy with her performance and loved racing at the arb. Zoe Jacquat raced her first 6k and finished in 32:57. Not far behind her was Audrey Bloomquist (33:02), Katelyn Howley (33:17), and Maggie Madden (33:43) who all raced their first 6ks of the season. Madden was proud of her consistent race and looks now to speeding up overall and learning to run at the pace that she knows she can. Josie Suter found the hill tough towards the end of the race, but was thankful for the hill workout a couple weeks back that prepared her for it as she rounded out the women in 34:04.
With both the men and women having FIVE ALL-REGIONAL runners, the Illini took home first place trophies on both sides, scoring 24 points on the women’s side and 28 on the men’s.
With Nationals in Lexington, Kentucky three weeks out, IXC goes back to training hard for half of that time before tapering to be ready for peak performances.
Be ready. Be excited. The hype starts now.
Until next time.