On Friday, February 8th, eight of our athletes headed up to Allendale, Michigan for the GVSU Big Meet. This is a very competitive varsity meet which we send only a selective few athletes to every year (except last year because big snow).
!["GVSU_indoor_track](https://eiupanthers.com/images/2015/2/11/gvsu_kelly_family_sports_center.jpg?preset=large.socialmediaimage'")
Most of our athletes this year found tremendous success:
The women’s 3000m saw Anneliese Schulz and young superstar Grace Gudwien working together throughout the race. Both came out with big PRs of over 10 seconds, with Schulz running 10:40.32 and Gudwien running 10:41.49!
The men’s 3000m featured Ryan Somerfield who had a fantastic race from the back of the pack, running a 14 second PR of 8:49.36!
In the women’s mile, Emma Burkhardt worked hard to run a season’s best of 5:23.78. With it being such a tight race, she was pushed out into lane three for much of the race, making it more impressive that she was only a few seconds off her goal. Julia Schultz ran 5:12.91 and has her eyes set on the club record of 5:05.
On the sprinter’s side, Andy Marszewski went HUGE in his 400 to run a 50.66! This is a PR of nearly TWO SECONDS! Andy showed up big in the 200, too, going 22.87.
Becky Haight had a season best of 1:00.97 in her 400, coming within less than a second of her PR! She also went 25.95 in the 200 and 8.12 in the 60.
Michael Jang competed in three events and performed great in all of them. He PR’d in the 60 with a 7.31, and PR’d in the 200 going 23.47, AND PR’d in the 60H in a time of 8.84!
Hopefully these athletes found their trip up to Allendale worth it, as many of them came away with lifetime PRs in their events. Competition breeds success and these guys proved that!
The next day, February 9th, the club sent 35 athletes to the Athletics & Recreation Center (fancy term for ‘big inflated dome’) in Indianapolis.
Jacob Avenaim had another PR 60m performance, running 7.23. Also in the 60 was Justin Nebel who ran 7.49, John Brandenburg with 7.71, Ben Junkroski ran 7.77, and PJ Coleman in 9.47.
In the women’s 60m hurdles we saw Tatiana Montanez race 11.84 in her first 60H race!
John Brandenburg led the 200 with a time of 24.73. Behind him was Ben Junkroski with 25.58. PJ Coleman finished in a time of 30.12.
President Alex Bienduga placed 8th with his 400 time of 52.75. Also in the 400 was David Young who ran 1:05.98.
Tatiana Montanez came back in the 400 and ran a time of 1:08.69.
The 800m run was full of Illinois athletes. Head coach Keith Lee finished in 2:01.92, taking 3rd overall. Evan Patel raced conservatively due to a recent hamstring strain but still finished in a solid 2:10.15. Justin Ostrem clocked in at 2:14.17, Beau Barber raced 2:15.05, Jarod Meyer came through at 2:16.12. Jake Winter came in next in 2:17.8, with Daniel Engel running 2:18.77, and Matt Dickinson finishing in 2:27.24.
Freshman Katie Sledz finished first for our women in 2:33.17. Clare Oehler was right behind in 2:34.34, and Natalie Maguire finished her race in 3:08.89.
In the mile was Justin Ostrem who finished in 4:41.05. Evan Patel had a strong kick to come through in 4:47.31, just a couple seconds off his collegiate PR. Jarod Meyer ran a collegiate PR with 4:48.77! Patrick Willhalm raced hard to finish in 4:57.93.
Clare Oehler had an amazing mile race to finish in 5:39.13. Noel Brindise was going to be happy with a sub 5:45 performance and she hit that almost right on with 5:45.16. Emily Condic raced 5:58.43, and Lindsey Schmidt was so close to breaking 6 with her 6:00.5. Brianna Legner ran 6:16.17, improving 13 seconds from her performance at IWU last month!
In the 3000, Josh Mollway ran 8:56.18 alone in the second heat. Connor Farrell finished in 9:18.94. Josh Feldman ran 9:28 and Jordan Meyer had a great race to finish in 9:29.85, a 13 second PR in just a couple weeks! Alex Kogen raced 9:55.07 in his first 3k race, and Daniel Engel ran 10:10.74. Matt Dickinson came in at 10:24.57 and Olan Bruyere came away with a PR of 10:25.39!
Mia Bertaud PR’d by a couple of seconds with her 11:37.38, and Natalie Maguire also PR’d by 8 seconds with a time of 13:43.45!
Jake Aldrich pole vaulted 4.41m. In the long jump, Justin Nebel jumped 5.99m. Chris Rydberg threw the shot put 12.89m, the second best throw in our club history!
Taylor Millsap pole vaulted 3.44m, and Nayeli Lara threw 8.33m in the shot put.
The men’s 4×400 team of John Brandenburg, Beau Barber, Ben Junkroski, and Keith Lee finished in 3:49.74.
The women’s 4×400 relay consisting of Emily Condic, Natalie Maguire, Clare Oehler, and Katie Sledz ran 4:56.5.
Though overall we didn’t see tremendous success in terms of performances, all athletes competed hard and treated this as another step towards the indoor season goal of Club Relays.
Congrats to all athletes on their performances at both meets!
Full results of the GVSU Big Meet can be found here
Full results of the UIndy invite can be found here
The Illinois Track and Field Club competes next at our own Illinois Club Relays in Champaign, IL on February 23rd.
Hope everyone is excited!