http://live.crossroadstiming.com/meets/470756
Who runs the world? Girls, obviously, considering that on the weekend of Apr 2nd-3rd. ITFC came to Olivet, Michigan to compete in the Nirca Nationals and the Women took 1st place!
If you didn’t know Nirca stands for The National Intercollegiate Running Club Association and every year they host a meet comparable to our very own Club Relays. So when I say being the National Champions within Nirca is no small feat, I mean it, and they did it in the cold too!
So without further delay allow me to detail to you the meet that was Nirca Nationals.
Field Events:
I’m going to detail the field events first, then work my way down for the running events in chronological order because some events had semis and finals.
In the long jump Khalia Mullin jumped 4.37m far.
For the Men’s Tyler Klein jumped 6.19m far. Tyler Klein came in 1st place overall for the Men’s long jump. By the way, prepare to read Tyler Klein’s name a lot during this meet write-up. It really wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he’s the reason the Men even placed in the Top 5. His performance was so outstanding he earned the nickname “Him” and “TK” by his fellow teammates. Tyler definitely deserves a pat on the back for this one.
Next up was the triple jump in which we saw Nick Hartmann and Derrick Stokes compete and jump 11.30m and 10.26m far respectively.
For the girls Khalia Mullin jumped 9.87m far which let her land a sweet 1st place victory at Nirca Nats.
Within the Women’s High Jump Annie Brunton jumped 1.35m high. For the Men’s Nick Hartmann and Derrick Stokes jumped 1.76m and 1.55m high respectively.
Track Events:
Starting our day off was the 100m race. This race was divided into prelims and finals so I’ll cover the prelims first. Within the Women’s we had Chaitra Niddodi, Caylee Losch, Rachel Sakwa, Ari Afolabi, and Ninawa Odicho compete and run. They got times of 16.70, 14.48, 13.92, 13.49, and 13.35 respectively. Ari and Ninawa got 1st and 3rd respectively and Ari, Ninawa, and Rachel advanced to the finals! In the Men’s 100m we had Sandin Cuturic, Andre Ells, Adam Adil, Jean-Christophe Raymond Bertrand, and Tyler Klein run and compete. They came in with times of 13.22, 12.58, 11.84, 11.54, and 11.32 respectively. Tyler Klein took 1st place and he and Chris moved onto the finals.
Next was the 400m hurdles and for the Women’s Katherine Vande Pol ran a 1:13.10, Annie Brunton got a 1:13.85 and Maria Becerra got a 1:16.63. The 400m hurdles is such a tough race and the fact these athletes did it in the cold is no small feat. For our Men’s Derrick Stokes put down a 1:06.32, Lane Weber ran a 1:05.64, and Nic Soto ran a very precise 59.99.
Now here’s another thing to note about this meet, some of the events were disjointed in terms of men running and women running. In order to keep the chronological thing going I won’t be combining them. So with the explanation out of the way Natalie Maguire ran a 22:22:13 in her 5000m run!
Next was the 200m prelims. For this event they had prelims, semis, and finals. For the Women Caylee Losch ran a 30.54, Rachel Sakwa ran a 30.08, Ibukun Ajifolokun ran a 28.66, Ari Afolabi ran a 28.50, and Ninawa Odicho ran a 27.74. Almost like they purposefully swapped places from the 100m dash this time Ninawa Odicho came in 1st and Ari Afolabi came in 3rd. Ibu, Ninawa, and Ari all advanced to the semi-finals.
For the Men’s 200m prelims. Daniel Pogrebinsky ran a 27.82, Eric Sylvester ran a 25.31, Nic Soto ran a 23.91, Kevin Saju ran a 23.83, Jalen Frazier ran a 23.73, Adam Adil ran a 23.36, Chris Bertrand ran a 23.31, and Tyler Klein ran 23.05. Tyler Klein came in 3rd place and Tyler Klein, Chris Betrand, Adam Adil, and Jalen Frazier proceeded to the semi-finals.
Next was the 4x800m relay and if you’ve been keeping up with our club so far our women’s absolutely dominate that race no holds barred. Our Illinois “A” Team consisting of Annie Brunton, Ella Chambers, Bridget Brokaw, and Katherine Vande Pol came in with a time of 10:19.13 coming in 1st place and blasting the other teams. The 2nd place team had a time of 10:31.66 just so you all know. For the Men’s 4x800m we had two teams. In our Illinois “B” team it included Denver Soekawan, Henry Hornbrook, Beau Barber, and Ryan Fredericks running a time of 9:04.77. In the “A” team it had Jeffrey Hesselbein, Nolan Enright, Spencer Nelson, and John Burns they had a time of 8:07.19.
Next was the Men’s 5K and Vijay Shah, Daniel Engel, and Kyle Kenmotsu ran clocking in times of 18:11.19, 17:48.39, and 17:12.30 respectively. Vignesh Ravibaskar and Cade Baker also competed coming in with times of 17:10.59 and 16:54.88 respectively.
Next was the 400m dash, for the Women they had Katherine Vande Pol and Adelina Garcia run with them clocking in times of 1:01.95 and 1:20.79. With Kat taking first place for the girls.
For the guys, we had a slew of people run the 400m. Namely, Trevor Glancy with a 1:04.42, Daniel Pogrebinsky with a 1:02.93, Ryan Fredericks with a 57.36, Henry Hornbrook with a 55.07, Gerardo Porras running a 54.60, Jalen Frazier ran a 54.30, Eric Sylvester ran a 54.10, Kevin Saju finished with a satisfying 53.53, Hector Ramos flew in with a 52.88, and of course Tyler “TK” Klein finished with a 50.31. Tyler came in at second place for the 400m.
After the 400m was immediately the 4x100m. The Women’s as per the trend this meet, bodied this event. Coming in 1st place with a time of 51.60, with a team composed of Ari Afolabi, Ninawa Odicho, Rachel Sakwa, and Ibukun Ajifolokun. For the Men’s it was a team composed of Nic Soto, Adam Adil, Tyler Klein, and Chris Bertrand they came in with a time 45.74 and just like the overall placement of the Men’s this Nirca meet, they came in 5th. It would’ve been at least second but Adam Adil injured himself mid race. So the fact they still came in 5th out of 14 really speaks to their speed!
Next were the almost mile runs, the 1500m run. For the Women’s Bridget Brokaw ran a 5:22.29, Natalie Maguire came in with a 6:12.84, and Grace Gudwien finished up with a 6:00.42.For the Men’s Gabe Benson ran a 5:20.95, Nathaniel Lenning ran a 5:06.75, Vijay Shah ran a 5:01.65, Gabriel Inojosa came in with a 4:54.51, Isaac Schifferer with a 4:48.37, Henry Hornbrook coming in with a 4:46.34, Beau Barber went on running a 4:46.15, Daniel Gutierrez ran a 4:40.92, Norb Nieves ran a 4:25.93, and Jeffrey Hesselbein finished with a 4:08.89.
Before we ended day one of the Nirca meet, we had the 200 semi-finals. For Women’s all three of them ran faster than their prelims and advanced to the finals with Ibu, Ninawa, and Ari running 28.04, 27.52, and 27.48 respectively. For the Men’s Tyler and Chris advanced to the finals with times of 22.83 and 23.11.
That concluded Day 1 of Nirca Nationals, the team stayed at a nice hotel and some of us explored the quaint town of Marshall, Michigan. The team got a good night’s rest and woke up bright and early for Day 2.
For Day 2 starting off we had the 100m Hurdles, Ari Afolabi ran a 16.12, Khalia Mullin ran a 18.31, and Maria Becerra ran a 19.25 with all three of them placing and earning us points.
After that was the 200m finals. Ari, Ninawa, and Ibu ran with a 27.31, 27.72, and 28.27. Ari took first place and Ninawa finished in second. For the Men’s Tyler and Chris ran 22.58 and 23.34, Tyler took first place for the 200m.
After the 200m was the 800m. For the Women’s Katherine Vande Pol ran a 2:27.98, Annie Brunton ran a 2:29.21, Bridget Brokaw and Mikeelie Jensen ran a 2:39.35 and 2:42.20 respectively. Gabriela Aguilar-Ripley finished off with a 2:57.76. In the Men’s Jeffrey Hesselbein ran a 2:00.81, John Burns ran a 2:02.11, Henry Hornbrook ran a 2:03.33, Beau Barber and Nolan Enright ran a 2:12.07 and 2.13.20 respectively. Daniel Gutierrez ran a 2:13.45, Ryan Fredericks followed up with a 2:14.27, Gerardo Porras ran his first 800m since HS with a 2:14.80, Lane Weber ran a 2:20.57, Denver Soekawan ran a 2:31.63, and Gabe Benson finished with a 2:36.53.
After that was the 100m final. Women’s 100m saw Ari, Ninawa, and Rachel competing. Clocking in with times of 13.16, 13.39, and 13.83. Ari and Ninawa came in first and second place. For the Men’s Tyler and Chris ran times of 11.06 and 11.45 respectively. Tyler came in second place being beaten by .02 seconds, so you can imagine how close the race was.
Almost wrapping up was the penultimate event of Nirca, the 3k Steeplechase run. We had Annie Brunton competing and she ran a 13:01.71, coming in 2nd place earning the girls some points. Then we had Justin Ostrem and Isaac Schifferer run, coming in with times of 10:20.68 and 11:44.75 respectively. Justin came in 3rd place.
Ending up the meet were the 4x400m relays.
The Women who were on hot streak all meet decided to turn it up even more with the 4x4s. They had Katherine Vande Pol, Ibukun Ajifolokun, Ninawa Odicho, and Ella Chambers give it their all as the last race of the meet, and for a good reason too because they placed first with a time of 4:17.22!
For our Men’s, congruent with the theme of fours we had 4 teams of 4 by 4 in 4 different heats.
Team “A” which came in 3rd place had Nic Soto, Kevin Saju, John Burns, and Tyler Klein run with a time of 3:27.37.
Team “D” which had Hector Ramos, Eric Sylvester, Gerardo Porras, and Henry Hornbrook run with a time of 3:38.70.
Team “F” had Ryan Fredericks, Beau Barber, Lane Weber, and Daniel Gutierrez run a 4:02.77 together.
Lastly, Team “C” which had Denver Soekawan, Nathaniel Lenning, Daniel Pogrebinsky, and Gabe Benson ran a 4:19.97.
That concludes the Nirca Nationals meet. Our Women’s team took first place with a score of 142 beating out the second place team by 14 whole points. The Men’s team took 5th which is still no small feat to accomplish. The Women’s team of ITFC surely gave a nationals quality performance at this meet and they should under no circumstances feel their victory wasn’t earned or wasn’t due to their hard work. There isn’t much else to say except next year we aim to take home both trophies of Nirca Nationals.
