Much like getting sick on the beaches of Ecuador, the Illini faced the competition offered by the University of Indianapolis with sheer will and determination. In the midst of rigorous training, the Illini still had some standout performances. It is important to emphasize that the track season has a long way to go before the athletes begin to “peak” as it’s called. Whether your performance was a PR or far from, keep this thought in the back of your mind. Come to practice hungry and determined to run fast, jump high, or throw far. Just under two weeks until the biggest indoor club meet in the nation, have that be your benchmark. With that out of the way, onto the individual results!
The day started around noon with the opening of the field events. First up, men’s long jump. Andy Marszewski was our first chosen athlete to compete, jumping an incredible 5.89m! Following behind was social coordinator Shantanu Amin with an impressive 3.84m! For you imperial scum, that’s over 12ft!
For the women’s, we saw Ibu Ajifolokun jump an impressive 4.84m which secured her the 4th spot on our All-Time bests leaderboard! Following up on that was Melissa Suarez jumping a solid 3.56m! Nice job to our long jump athletes!
With no Illini being represented in the triple jump, we moved on to the shot put where we had one lone athlete compete. Shantanu Amin came in and threw an impressive 5.48m! More Bienduga memes are coming Shantanu, don’t you worry.
That concludes our field event portion for this meet, we hope to see more out there next week at the University of Chicago! But now, it’s time to look onto the track and see how our running athletes stacked up.
Starting with the women’s 60m hurdles, Desarae Echevarria came across the finish at a blistering 10.40s! Following up was Maria Becerra at 11.93s finish! Not bad for her first ever hurdle race! Excellent job ladies!
For the men’s hurdles, Josh James did not disappoint when he finished top 5 in the finals with a 8.81s finish! Josh has been working on his starting steps at practice and his new strategy of 7 steps over 8 should lead to faster times later this season! Excellent race! Just barely missing qualifying, but no doubt that will come in the future was Yousuf Ahmad with a 9.25s. Alton Barbehenn finished it up for the Illini with a strong 9.83s. Great job gentlemen!
Next up, the 60m dash! Starting with the ladies, Ibu Ajifolokun opened up with a 8.48s finish! Securing the 7th spot on our All-Time bests leaderboard! Following her was Melissa Suarez with a 10.28s! Nice job ladies!
On the men’s side, we saw Jalen Frazier run an impressive 7.31s time! Close behind was Shawn Rosofsky with a 7.41s finish! Our very own President Alex Bienduga sprinted a blistering 7.47s! Coach Helberg would be proud, kid. Next up was a very close finish between Matthew Steele and Turner Hastings. Steele came across at 7.80s with Hastings right on his heels at 7.82s! Unfortunately they weren’t in the same heat but great performances nonetheless! Sandin Cuturic made his season debut with a 8.18s finish and Shantanu Amin came across at 9.80s! This man does it all I swear.
Next event on the track was the 400 meters, sprinters version of “distance”. On our women’s team, we saw Katherine Vande Pol on the edge of a top 5 finish with a 1:01.35 performance! Awesome job! Desarae Echevarria was next for the Illini at a speedy 1:07.46, an excellent race! Ciara Ward topped it off for the Illini at a solid 1:08.31 race. Nice job all around ladies!
On the men’s side, Andy Marszewski showed up and secured a top 5 finish for the Illini with a solid 52.36s time! Distance / mid-distance hybrid John Kellum decided to give the 400 a try and ran a solid 53.76s race, just getting him into the top 10! Next was Henry Hornbrook with a respectable 55.57s time! Alton Barbehenn and Beau Barber had pretty close finishes, once again separated by heats. Barbehenn finished at 56.37s while Barber finished at 56.49s. Nice job men! Turner Hastings finished with a speedy time of 57.85s! Great job to all of our 400 meter runners!
A nice break from sprinting events leads us to the mile run. Distance runners most favorite event to flex.
Starting with the women’s mile, freshman Brisa McGrath had an amazing race that landed her in the top 10 with a 5:39.95! Lauren Bartels also had a standout race in the mile, finishing at a blistering 6:15.72, 10 seconds faster than at IWU and a lifetime PR! We have some fast ladies on the team! Gabriela Aguilar-Ripley was next for the Illini at a solid 6:31.32! Following up was Mahum Chaudhary with an impressive 6:39.44! Angela Wu came across the finish at a solid 6:44.13 and closing it out was Natalie Maguire with an amazing 7:03.12! Well done ladies!
On the men’s side, we apparently had some issues with timing in one of the heats so we’ll give an estimated time for that athlete. Starting us off was steeplechase coach Justin Ostrem with a respectable 4:41.18! Not bad for mid indoor season! Arthur Mazzeo just wedged under the 5 minute milestone for a solid 4:59.89! Awesome job! Justice Carter ran a strong race and finished in 5:10.45! Thomas Tran had some timing issues on the official results. Based on some complex mathematical equations, we estimate Tran crossed the line between 5:15 and 5:17 based on how fast he ran his final lap. Still an excellent job nonetheless! Isaac Schifferer came across at a solid 5:36.02, beating his IWU time by 12 seconds! A round of applause for our mile runners!
Next on the track was the infamous 800 meter run, it’s like a 400 just twice!
Representing our women athletes was none other than Natalie Maguire who ran a solid 3:18.03! Way to represent the Illini Natalie! Hoping to see more of our women out there next week!
The men’s 800 meter run was a sight to behold. I wish I could have been there to see it in person. John Kellum not only ran a season PR in the indoor 800, but he also won the race and placed 6th on our all time best leaderboard! Kellum ended up winning with a 1:59.77, the only one to go sub 2 that day. Amazing job Kellum, excited to see what comes at Club Relays! But wait, there’s more! Nikita Smyrnov came across the line in third place! Shaving close to 3 seconds off his time from IWU and a season best at 2:01.20! Excellent job Nikita!
Drake Heisterkamp also had a solid performance at 2:07.43! Excellent race! Cade Baker had an awesome race and finished with a 2:11.24! Jonathan Walk debuted his season with a solid 2:12.29! After that, we had an awesome stream of Illini, coming in one after another in their heat. Henry Hornbrook finished at 2:15.66, Nathan Zachar came across right on his heels at 2:15.83, Norb Nieves shortly after at 2:16.11 which was an 8 second improvement from IWU! Finally old man Beau Barber with a solid 2:16.65! Spencer Robieson closed it out for the Illini at 2:20.27. Excellent job men!
Back to sprinting events, the 200 meter sprint was next. Representing the women was Katherine Vande Pol with a 27.68, a time worthy of taking 5th on our All-Time leaderboard! Next for the Illini was another All-Time best, Ibu Ajifolokun ran a fast 27.99 taking the 6th spot on our leaderboard! Following her was Natasha Ferrero with a solid 29.25! Wrapping it up for the horde that is known as the 200 meter dash was Maria Becerra with a respectable 30.03! So close to breaking that 30 second barrier!
For the men, we had quite a few gentlemen represent the Illini. Starting off was Andy Marszewski with a top 10 finish at 23.32! Alex Bienduga somehow weaseled his way into the top 10 as well at 10th place by just .01 of a second with a time of 23.47. Cutting it close Mr. President! Jalen Frazier came across at a speedy 23.60! Yousuf Ahmad finished with a solid 24.68 and not too far behind was Shawn Rosofsky at 24.98! Matthew Steele had a DQ time listed in the results, but based on trusted sources, he ran an impressive 25.32! He’ll be back next week so keep an eye out. Wrapping it up for the men’s 200 was Sandin Cuturic with a solid time of 27.18! Great job gentlemen!
Next event on the track was the 3000 meter run! Representing our women’s squad, we had Grace Gudwien run a speedy 10:42.83 and finish third overall! Nice job Grace!
On the men’s side of things, our very own distance coach Josh Mollway lead the charge with an impressive 9:08.51 and a first place for his heat! Nice job Josh! Usual mid-distance runner Andrew Rhode showed off his distance prowess with a 9:29.04! Beans boy Jarod Meyer had a respectable race with a 9:53.28 finishing time! Nathan Saltzman came across the line at 10:35.35, finishing it off for the Illini. Great job men! Olan Bruyere was another victim to fall to the timing issues. The results had him at 10:12.40, but more accurately would have been close to under 11 minutes. Still great performances all around!
Final event of the day, 4×400 meter relay. Starting with our women’s relay teams, our ‘A’ squad consisted of Desarae Echevarria, Ibu Ajifolokun, Natasha Ferrero, and Ciara Ward. These speedy gals were able to secure a second place finish for the team with a cumulative time of 4:25.90! Excellent job ladies! Our ‘B’ squad consisted of Maria Becerra, Brisa McGrath, Mikeelie Jensen, and Angela Wu. Together, they managed a 5:02.29 total time. Excellent races ladies!
Our men came to UIndy with three 4×400 relay teams. In an un-orderly fashion, our ‘B’ team ended up finishing first consisting of Nikita Smyrnov, Drake Heisterkamp, Alton Barbehenn, and Jeffrey Hesselbein. Together, they pulled off an impressive 3:42.41. Nice job men! Our ‘A’ squad followed up with a 3:51.41 consisting of Josh James, Josh Mollway, Patrick Willhalm, and John Kellum. Great performance! Our ‘C’ squad was made up of Norb Nieves, Jonathan Walk, Beau Barber, and Nathan Zachar. They managed to cross the line at 4:02.00. Excellent performances all around gentlemen!
It was a solid day all around for the Illini, and each athlete should have something to walk away with. As stated at the beginning, we are currently in the midst of intense training not only to gear up for Club Relays, but for the whole outdoor season as well. If your performance wasn’t where you wanted it to be, analyze what could be improved on and go for it. We still have a long season ahead of us and weeks of training and racing to help build up for Nationals and beyond. This is ITC signing off, we’ll see you at UChicago.