On Dec 4th, ITFC made their explosive return back to a track meet at Illinois Wesleyan University and the results definitely set the precedent for the rest of the season.
Field Events:
Starting things off jumping the spectacular freshman Tyler Klein dropped a 6.16m Long Jump for his very first time attempting the event. The Jumps Coach Jad Karajeh noted this was a very outstanding start of the season for him. Good job!
Being the sole representative for the Throws Squad Carley Polan threw a very impressive 9.65m only less than 1 meter away from breaking a club record!
In Men’s Triple Jump another ITFC Freshman Phillip Yu dropped an 11.30m, again noted by our jumps coach Jad Karajeh that this was a pretty good start to the season. We look forward to what Phillip does next!
Moving on, in the High Jump, returning for his second year Derrick Stokes jumped up with a 1.55m, pretty impressive and we are sure he’ll reach even newer heights this year. No pun intended.
Track Events:
Starting us off for the day in the dynamic 60m Hurdles, long time member PJ Coleman ran a 12.60 in the first heat, and following him in the second heat came the burning freshman talent Matas Carmichael who dropped a 10.42. The athlete stated he’s still recovering so he was actually holding back!
In the Women’s 60m Dash our two competitors’ Assistant Sprints Coach Rachel Sakwa and freshman Chaitra Niddodi showed us what they were working with, running 8.61 and 10.18 respectively. Nice performances from these two valued members of ITFC. Following that up in the Men’s 60m Dash we had a plethora of runners entering the fray to compete at IWU. Adam Adil ran a solid 7.24 and amazing freshman talent Jean-Christophe Raymond Betrand (who will be referred to as Chris Betrand for the remainder of this post), ran a pretty great 7.3. Right behind them Tyler Klein ran a smooth 7.34 and the endurance based freshman start up Kevin Saju ran a 7.37. Following up, these two bombastic freshmen Nic Soto and Jordan Dawkins ran a 7.58. Wrapping up Andre Ells ran a 7.79 and Matas Carmichael came back from his hurdles race to run a 8.18. Finally another freshman start up Yifan Cao finished up this section for ITFC by running a 8.85. The freshmen really showed up and showed out here, we are definitely proud of them all for sticking with the club and improving steadily.
Representing us in the 1 mile run our very own Wilma Rishko ran a 5.51.02, and placed second in this event throughout the entire meet. No small feat and very commendable.
Next up we had a race that’s unique to IWU, the 300m dash. This race only comes around once a year really so it’s always interesting to see the results of that one. This year we had the returning Junior Zoe Tsokolas wanting to dip her toe into the race and she came out with a nice 48.18. Matas Carmichael didn’t want to let this opportunity go to waste and he ran a 41.68. Adam Adil also wanted to try his hand at the race and managed to run a 37.12 placing an overall 3rd of the mens. This trio surely did not disappoint when it came to tackling this yearly race.
Straight doubling the distance ran we moved into the 600m run, where our Mid-Distance Coach Katherine Vande Pol breaks the current record of 1.41.81 with her new record of 1.41.18! What an achievement! Ella Chambers also does not disappoint with a 1.51.36. On the Men’s side of things Trevor Glancy ran a nice 1.29.56, Henry Hornbrook was right behind him running a 1.30.43. Following up Ben Baltz came in hot with a 1.34.13 and lastly, Denver Soekawan finished up this section with a strong 1.47.23.
Now dividing that 600m by three we head into my favorite, the 200m dash.The female cornerstone of the sprinters Rachel Sakwa heads us off by gliding in with a smooth 29.18. For the males Chris Betrand ran an outstanding time of 23 seconds and placed 3rd overall in the 200m dash, a very promising future indeed. Following up in comes Tyler Klein and Kevin Saju running very similar times of 23.78 and 23.79 respectively. Adam Adil ran a nice 23.84 and Nic Soto came in with a 24.33. These next three runners consisting of Andre Ells, Derrick Stokes, and Jordan Dawkins dropped a 26.09, then two 26.16s. Lastly, PJ Coleman and Yifan Cao ran a 28.70 and 29.47 respectively.
Next in the 3000m run we only had one runner, but that was none other than our Annie Brunton who not only ran a nice 11.42.05 but also deserves recognition for having another obligation, yet still being dedicated enough to the club to showing up and competing still.
Wrapping up our first meet of the season we had the coveted 4x400m relay. There was only one team of girls composed of Zoe Tsokolas, Wilma Rishko, Annie Brunton, and Katherine Vande Pol. They ran a very clean 4:40:28. On the men’s side of things, IWU actually put both our “A” and “B” teams in the same heat, by themselves. So we had the entire track to ourselves to duke it out and we performed better/competitively against some of the teams seeded higher than us. So that’s definitely a win for ITFC. In this corner we have our “A” team consisting of Trevor Glancy, Nic Soto, Kevin Saju, Tyler Klein vs the “B” team which included Henry Hornbrook, Denver Soekawan, Matas Carmichael, and Ben Baltz. These teams ran a 3:43.96 and a 4:06.87 respectively.
This meet showed us great promise for the future of the season, and to think we were able to see such performances for the very first meet is an extremely good omen in my book. The entirety of ITFC looks forward to seeing what each of our talented athletes can pull off next.
Meet Results: https://results.adkinstrak.com/meets/11867
Great content! Keep up the good work!
How is the COVID situation over there?
Was ok when we went. Probably gotten better.