Welcome back folks. For the third weekend in a row, Illinois Track & Field Club puts forth their best in an attempt to perform well. However, this is not like any other meet that has occured throughout the season. The Illinois Club Relays is the finale of the indoor track season for the Illini and is a chance for each individual to put their best foot forward and see what they can do before they head outdoors. We invited over 25 club teams, and many individual racers (700 athletes!), to come down to our beloved Champaign-Urbana Armory track to see if they could stand a chance at stripping our title (spoiler, they didn’t). At Club Relays, events are scored differently as opposed to a traditional track meet. The times/distances/heights of each team’s top 4 best performing athletes are added together and scored as a relay. Speaking in overall terms, on the women’s side, we won the 60m dash, 60m hurdles, mile, high jump, long jump, and triple jump. They also were able to snag second in the shot put and 3000 meter run! For the men, victorys were in the 60m hurdles, mile, and triple jump. Second place in shot put and tied for third in the high jump. Additionally, they placed 4th in the 60m dash and 5th in the 3000 meter run! The points from the top three finishing teams are listed below for the men’s and women’s.
Women’s Team Finishes
1. University of Illinois……………111
2. University of Michigan………..69
3. University of Wisconsin………62
Men’s Team Finishes
1. University of Illinois…………….94.5
2. University of Wisconsin……….68
3. University of Michigan…………66
After many years of close meets, the 26.5 point margin of victory on the men’s side was our largest since 2014! That was back when Grandpa Beau Barber was still an undergrad! For the women, this is the third straight year scoring over 100 points and also 5 more points than last year! Nice job Coach Bienduga!
Spectators and competitors got to witness intense competition while also watching people in jorts and ties hand-off a bagel baton in the 4×4. The diversity of this meet is unmatched, and neither is the energy. We’re all here because we enjoy running and racing one another, and that’s what this meet embodies, no matter the skill level. We saw tons of PR’s, many podium finishes, and countless smiles. With the introduction out of the way, let’s move onto the individual results just to see how much ITFC swept the competition.
The day began at around 10am with the first running events being the 60m hurdles. Starting with our women, we had three ladies represent us on the track. Tatiana Montanez came through with a winning time of 10.31s after three stepping for the first time and dropping a whole second off her time! Maria Becerra was next at a solid 11.51s and Taylor Millsap closed it out at a respectable 12.87s! Nicely done ladies!
On the men’s side, we saw the same trend. Josh James had an incredible showing, taking first place overall at 8.66s, now 2nd all time for our club! Well done Josh! Garret Barch followed up with a fourth place finish at 8.87s and Yousuf Ahmad was right behind him to secure fifth for the Illini at 8.90s, his first time ever under 9 seconds and 6th all time for the club! Elias Decker was next at 9.38s followed up by Alton Barbehenn at 9.55s! Closing it out for ITFC was PJ Coleman at a solid 11.76s! Great job men!
Men’s high jump was occurring in the infield with three Illinois athletes. Jacob Birg lead us at a solid 1.70m, with Jad Karajeh coming in at the same height! Andy Marszewski topped it off at a solid 1.50m. Excellent performances!
For the women, we saw Susan Whelton come in 2nd place overall with a height of 1.45m! Yuliya Ilnitzkaya wasn’t too far behind in 3rd with a height of 1.40! Nicely done ladies!
Back on the track, the women’s 60m dash was up. Securing yet another victory for the Illini was Ibu Ajifolokun with an outstanding time of 8.39s, earning the 7th spot on our All-Time best leaderboard! Following up in third overall was Natasha Ferrero with a solid 8.66s! Melissa Suarez closed it out nicely at 9.85s! Well done ladies!
On the men’s side, we had quite the showing. Leading the charge was Jalen Frazier at a speedy 7.29s! Andy Marszewski followed up close behind at 7.33s. Adam Adil and Shawn Rosofsky were practically neck-in-neck at 7.41 and 7.42 respectively! Andre Ells was next at a solid 7.45s, with Turner Hastings not too far off at 7.51, a very nice PR! Brend Hiserote debuted with an impressive 7.80, tying with Anthony Lu at an exact 7.80s! Matthew Steele came across the line at 7.85s with Nicolas Perez close behind at 7.93s! Sandin Cuturic finished in just over 8 seconds at 8.03! Sam Stabosz was next at a solid 8.22s finish and Shantanu Amin closed it off strong at a 9.53s! Well done men! As you can see, we have depth.
Onto the beginning of the main reason why this meet is referred to as “Illinois Club Relays”. Besides events being scored as relays, we offer the 4×800, 4×200, Sprint Medley, and of course the 4×400. The first relay of the day was the 4×800.
Kicking it off was the women’s 4×8, and earning a top 5 finish was our ‘A’ squad consisting of Julia Schultz, Emily Condic, Mikeelie Jensen, and Maddy Feehan with a solid 10:24.56 finish! Our ‘B’ squad was made up of Audrey Calkins, Lauren Bartels, Lauren Brunk, and Margo van Loon and together they managed a 11:11.89! Nicely done ladies! Our third and final women’s 4×8 consisted of MaryBeth Feeley, Gabriela Aguilar-Ripley, Mahum Chaudhary, and Maggie Kosterman and ran a 11:38.09! Great job everyone!
We had four men’s squads. Our ‘A’ squad secured the W and managed to place second overall on our All-Time Bests with a solid 7:59.55! Oh and it was run by Josh Mollway, Nikita Smyrnov, Patrick Willhalm, and John Kellum. Solid performance out there and an extraordinary comeback by Kellum as anchor, rumor has it Cody Lund’s heartbeat peaked at 115bpm during this race! The ‘B’ team consisting of Jeffrey Hesselbein, Drake Heisterkamp, Cade Baker, and Jacob Fleck managed to pull off a 8:33.47! ‘C’ squad wasn’t too far behind at 8:39.13 made up of Norb Nieves, Henry Hornbrook, Nathan Zachar, and Jonathan Walk. Closing it out was our ‘D’ team made up of Garrett Minich, Tristan Taylor, Spencer Robieson, and Will Thomas and finished in 9:07.99! Well done to all the 4×8 teams!
Long jump was up next. Starting with the women, we had Ibu Ajifolokun jump an impressive 4.70m which earned her 2nd place overall! Close behind in 4th was Jessica Zhang at 4.43m! Melissa Suarez closed it out for the Illini at 3.72m. Nicely done ladies!
On the men’s side, Andy Marszewski jumped a solid 5.85m! Triple jump star Jad Karajeh was next at a respectable 5.70m! Jacob Birg came in at a solid 5.47m. Brend Hiserote jumped a fantastic 5.14m and Shantanu Amin topped it off at 3.54m! Well done men!
Back on the track, the 4x200m relay was up. We had two 4×2 women teams, one of which placed first place overall! (Starting to see how we won the meet yet?) The ‘A’ team made up of Katherine Vande Pol, Ibu Ajifolokun, Natasha Ferrero, and Tatiana Montanez ran a combined time of 1:51.72 and placed first overall! Our ‘B’ team ran another solid time of 1:58.90, earning them fourth overall and consisted of Zoe Tsokolas, Maria Becerra, Keyana Diaz, and Ciara Ward. Great job ladies!
For the men, yet another Illini victory, and setting the club AND meet record by half a second! Our ‘A’ squad, consisting of Garret Barch, Alex Bienduga, Jalen Frazier, and Andy Marszewski secured first place overall and an amazing time of 1:31.91! Incredible! Our ‘B’ team made up of Anthony Lu, Adam Adil, Yousuf Ahmad, and Matthew Steele crossed the line with a cumulative time of 1:36.58! In an un-orderly fashion, our ‘D’ team was up next with a time of 1:46.72, just edging out our ‘C’ team. The ‘D’ team was made up of Sandin Cuturic, Shawn Rosofsky, Brend Hiserote, and PJ Coleman. The ‘C’ team got cucked by .03 seconds and ran a time of 1:46.75! Still faster than my 800 though so you’re all still fast. ‘C’ team was ran by Nicolas Perez, Elias Decker, Shantanu Amin, and Turner Hastings. Well done on all fronts men!
We’ll take a look at the shot put pit to see how we did on that front. On the women’s side, Inga Augustaitis placed second overall with an impressive throw of 9.64m! Drew Hong followed up nicely in fifth at 7.65m! Nicely done ladies!
For the men, throws coach Chris Rydberg came out on top with a first place finish of 12.65m! That’s the fifth spot on our All-Time bests leaderboard! Liam Nassib was next in fourth place overall at 11.35m. Kelvin Cross threw an impressive 10.46m with Sam Stabosz close behind with a 10.43m! Shantanu Amin closed it out with a solid 6.11m throw. Nicely done throwers!
The 3000 meter run was up next on the track, with a decent showing on both the men’s and women’s side, surprising Coach Lund with a second place on the women’s side and a sneaky 4 points grabbed by the men! Starting with the women’s, Grace Gudwien had a solid performance and finished fourth overall at 10:59.30! Brisa McGrath came in next at 11:14.47! Riley Maloney had an outstanding race at 12:18.80! Nicely done! Natalie Maguire finished it off for the Illini women at 13:08.15! Well done ladies!
For the men, Justin Ostrem had a solid race being seeded a “bit” faster and managed a 9:05.04! Eli Walker continued his hot streak after a year hiatus with a great race and a time of 9:12.81! Coming back a week after being sick with minimal running, Connor Farrell was able to cross the line at 9:16.95! Yours truly, Matthew Beckerman ran another PR race at 9:20.77! Zach Mesplay had a solid debut performance at 9:31.89! Alex Kogen came across the line at 9:38.57! Kogen read my writeups. Michael Gerkin came out for Club Relays and ran an impressive 9:42.44! Father Wassim Elhouar ran another respectable race at 10:17.30! Basketball fanatic Nathan Saltzman closed it out for the Illini at 10:23.43! Well done everyone!
Next set of races were the women’s and men’s 1600m sprint medley relay! Abbreviated the SMR, the legs are not of equal distance for those uninformed readers. The first two runners run 200 meters, the third leg runs a 400, and the anchor runs an 800.
We had one team on the women’s side of things, and of course you already know they took first place overall. Representing the Illini in the ‘A’ squad was Zoe Tsokolas, Maria Becerra, Ciara Ward, and Katherine Vande Pol with a time of 4:30.91! This places them in the fifth spot on our All-Time bests leaderboard! Nicely done ladies!
On the men’s side, we had two teams represent ITFC. The ‘A’ team consisted of Adam Adil, Garret Barch, Jalen Frazier, and Patrick Willhalm. Together, they got second place overall and finished at 3:41.21, taking seventh on our All-Time bests leaderboard! The ‘B’ squad consisted of Anthony Lu, Josh James, Andre Ells, and Drake Heisterkamp and they finished at 3:53.88! Nicely done men!
Next up is the horde known as the mile. There were over 300 runners between the men’s and women’s races, and 13 heats in the men’s. It was insane. We’ll start with the women.
A fantastic race by Julia Schultz with a huge surge to chase down the leader and managed to close a roughly 80 meter gap! Julia bagged second place overall for Illinois and ran an impressive 5:17.07! Nicely done! Brisa McGrath was one of the other unfortunate souls to do the 3k and mile double, but still managed a 5:36.28 mile! Grace Gudwien was in a similar boat and also managed a great time of 5:44.73! Mia Bertaud had a solid performance with a 5:49.83 finish! Clare Oehler was close behind at 5:51.24, with Maddy Feehan also close at 5:55.70! Emily Condic and Noel Brindise were basically tied at 6:03.25 and 6:03.34! Audrey Calkins crossed the line at 6:10.19 and tatted up Mikeelie Jensen finished at 6:14.46! Still plenty of ITFC runners to go. Lauren Bartels came across at 6:23.19! Mahum Chaudhary and Maggie Kosterman were also essentially tied at 6:25.93 and 6:25.99 respectively! Nicely done! MaryBeth Feeley was able to finish at 6:50.09! Katelyn Howley got very close to a sub 7 minute mile at 7:00.30, almost there! Natalie Maguire closed it out at a solid 7:14.51! Wow that was a lot of runners. Nicely done all around ladies!
There’s even more runners in the men’s. Get ready for a ton of names and a ton of times. Starting off strong, coming in for the 1, 2, 3 sweep was Josh Mollway, Nikita Smyrnov, and John Kellum at 4:25.47, 4:25.88, and 4:27.27 respectively. Hands-down, favorite race of the day to watch. Excellent racing by all three of them and perfect execution to secure the sweep. Next up was another incredible race which deserves recognition. Andrew Rhode finished at 4:32.17. A huge mid race surge to chase down the leader, similar to Julia’s race, and kept pushing as hard as he could. An absolute unit came out of nowhere and managed to outkick Rhode, but still a great race overall and the end of an incredible indoor season. Human anomaly, Evan Patel debuted his season with an impressive 4:37.64! This man can do extraordinary things with very little training or care for his well being. It’ll be interesting to see how he does outdoors. Jeffrey Hesselbein was next up, squeezing under 4:40 with a 4:39.54! Nicely done Hesselbit…Hesselbein! Spencer “Give me attention” Nelson came across at 4:40.17, getting shut out by Hesselbein. Head coach Cody Lund had an impressive mile at 4:40.66 with no racing all season! Alex Hanskat had a season PR for the 800 in his mile and managed a 4:40.93! Just missing Cody’s cheeks by over .20 seconds.
Splitting up this section because there are still a ton of athletes to go. Foolish man Justin Ostrem dared to do the 3k/mile/4×4 triple and felt it this mile. Still pulled off a 4:47.03 which was a lot better than his counterpart…myself…. Liam Bots had a great race with a time of 4:50.02! Cade Baker was next at a solid 4:52.49! Tim Green had an impressive race and finished at 4:53.52! Matthew Beckerman was the other fool to do the 3k/mile/4×4 triple and survived with a 4:53.78. We’ll see him and Ostrem again in the 4×4. Lucas Carrillo came across at a solid 4:53.81! Norb Nieves wasn’t too far behind at 4:54.24, another solid PR! Future Meyer animal, Jordan Meyer managed a decent sub 5 mile at 4:58.17! Nice job! Justin Baysore and Robbie Sieczkowski came very close at 5:12.01 and 5:12.14! Olan Bruyere was next at a solid 5:14.78! Thomas Tran came across the finish line at 5:16.25 with Matt Dickinson close behind at 5:17.50! John Feeley ran a solid race with a time of 5:23.65 and Isaac Schifferer closed it out at 6:00.89! DONE WITH THE MILE! Congrats to all the athletes who competed!
Before we move onto the 4x400m relay, we’ll finish off the field events with the triple jump. On the women’s side, Yuliya Ilnitzkaya secured second place overall at a solid 9.53m! Taylor Millsap was next up in fifth overall at 9.08m! Jessica Zhang was close behind in sixth at 9.06m! Well done ladies!
On the men’s side, we had our triple jump legend Jad Karajeh take home first place overall with a solid performance of 13.33m! Jacob Birg was next in fourth place at 11.61m! Nicolas Perez closed it out for the Illini at 11.16m! Nicely done men!
The last event of a very long day, the 4x400m relay. At this point it was about 7:30pm (give or take some minutes). We had 21 relay teams between the men and women heats, which if you do some fast math, is 84 athletes. This next section is going to be long. Get comfy!
Starting with the women, our ‘A’ team consisted of Katherine Vande Pol, Ibu Ajifolokun, Natasha Ferrero, and Tatiana Montanez. Together they took home the W with a time of 4:11.53, third on our All-Time best leaderboard! Next up our ‘B’ squad consisted of Zoe Tsokolas, Ciara Ward, Maria Becerra, and Katherine Miles and ran a cumulative time of 4:47.67! This is where the fun begins. Our ‘G’ (yes, G) team consisting of Julia Schultz, Mia Bertaud, Tiffany Yathaputanon, and Margo van Loon came across at 4:50.25! It’s gonna get disorganized very quickly with the team lettering. Next up at 4:51.77 was our ‘D’ squad consisting of Maggie Kosterman, Gabriela Aguilar-Ripley, Mahum Chaudhary, and MaryBeth Feeley! ‘C’ team was up next, made up of Susan Whelton, Jessica Zhang, Yuliya Ilnitzkaya, and Melissa Suarez and together these ladies ran a 4:55.65! Nicely done! Close behind was our ‘F’ team comprised of Lauren Bartels, Lauren Brunk, Emily Condic, and Clare Oehler and together they ran 4:56.23! Our ‘E’ team was even closer at 4:56.95 and made up of Mikeelie Jensen, Brisa McGrath, Audrey Calkins, and Maddy Feehan. Closing out the women’s section of the 4×4 was our ‘H’ team consisting of Riley Maloney, Natalie Maguire, Katelyn Howley, and Zoe Jacquat with a solid time of 5:46.80! Nicely done everyone!
Onto the beefy men’s section. Let’s see how long the alphabetical order goes for team letterings and their respective finishes. Starting off with our ‘A’ squad, made up of Alex Bienduga, Jalen Frazier, Patrick Willhalm, and Andy Marszewski with an impressive time of 3:29.53 and an eighth spot on our All-Time best leaderboard! Not only that, but they also bagged the W! Next up was the ‘B’ team consisting of Josh Mollway, John Kellum, Andre Ells, and Drake Heisterkamp with a solid time of 3:40.43! Nicely done! ‘C’ team was close behind at 3:41.04, made up of Josh James, Elias Decker, Adam Adil, and Garret Barch, well done! The ‘E’ team, consisting of Cody Lund, Alex Hanskat, Jeffrey Hesselbein, and Nikita Smyrnov was next up at a solid finish of 3:47.31! The ‘G’ squad, codenamed: “Boys Who Cry” followed up at a 3:52.94, made up of Evan Patel, Mackenzie Bach, Eli Walker, and Connor Farrell. Nicely done boys! Our ‘D’ team was comprised of Anthony Lu, PJ Coleman, Yousuf Ahmad, and Turner Hastings with a solid time of 3:53.37! Great job!
Splitting this up just like the mile because there are still about half of the teams remaining. Following up close behind the ‘D’ team was our ‘H’ team at 3:53.93, made up of Henry Hornbrook, Spencer Robieson, Jonathan Walk, and Nathan Zachar. Nice job men! The ‘F’ squad consisted of Spencer Nelson, Tristan Taylor, Malachi Robinson, and Norb Nieves and together they were able to run a combined time of 3:56.26! Nicely done! Our ‘I’ team was made up of Lucas Carrillo, Garrett Minich, Liam Bots, and Tim Green and were able to cross the finish line at 3:56.91! Almost done, I promise. Our ‘K’ team consisted of Alex Kogen, Andrew Rhode, Jacob Fleck, and Olan Bruyere with a solid time of 3:59.19, well done! The ‘L’ squad (no L’s taken today) was made up of Cade Baker, John Feeley, Jordan Meyer, and Kevin Callahan to run a great race with a time of 4:02.45! Great job gentlemen! Our ‘M’ team consisted of Matthew Beckerman, Justin Ostrem, Arthur Mazzeo, and Jarod Meyer. Having two fools who triple entered, and a man who just finished a 12 hour travel day from California to show up and run a 400, somehow managed a 4:05.61. Well done men! Our final 4×4 squad, the ‘J’ team consisted of Wassim Elhouar, Isaac Schifferer, Thomas Tran, and Justin Baysore topped off Club Relays 2020 with a 4:17.41 finishing time! Congrats to our massive 4×400 effort!
And just like that, Illinois Club Relays 2020 is a wrap! Massive shout out to Bryan Himmel for coordinating the meet this year. Without him, this wouldn’t have been possible. Also shout out to Cody Lund and Alex Bienduga for their efforts of getting things organized and also having to proofread this monster of a writeup, I appreciate you both. As stated in the title, ITFC walked away with their 12th consecutive win and I’m sure they’ll do the same for the 2021 Club Relays and so on. This couldn’t have been done without the incredible efforts put forth by each of our athletes, so a final congrats to everyone who came out and competed! Now, we look ahead to the outdoor season. We have quite a bit of downtime between now and our next meet (March 28th), followed up by Nationals early April. Train well and consistent these next 4 weeks to stay in competing shape. Thank you to all the other teams and athletes that came out and competed as well, we’re all hoping you return next year and spread word so that we may have even more athletes competing! Also wanted to thank Milesplit and NIRCA for showcasing the meet on their respective social media accounts! And the truth is…I am NIRCA.
Official Results:
https://results.shazamracing.com/meets/5579