Happy Tuesday!
We’re only 4 days away from the biggest event in winter sporting history, the Illinois Club Relays, of course! Before we got to that, we had a small, but mighty group of runners head to our neighbors in the north for the University of Chicago Margaret Bradley Invite on February 17th. We had a lot of great performances, let’s get into them!
As always, let’s start it off with the women’s 60m dash. Today was all about Ari Afolabi, running an 8.08 to come first in the prelims, and then improving to run an 8.06 to claim 1st place overall in the finals, congratulations! Next up was Sumin Cho, having a great day and running an 8.91 to come 5th in her preliminary heat. Close behind her was teammate Christina Li, coming in at a 9.06. Leah Wilson closed it out for the Illini with a speedy 9.25.
For the men, it was Michael VanHootegem all alone, but that didn’t stop him from having a great time of 7.40 to claim 10th place in the prelims.
In the 60m hurdles, it was again the Ari Afolabi show, running a 9.15 to come second in the prelims, and then a 9.29 to come in 2nd place in the finals, wow! Christina Jordan had a great day in the hurdles as well, running a 10.07 to come sixth in the prelims, then following that up with a great 10.25 to come 6th overall in the finals!
On the men’s side, Michael VanHootegem had an awesome race, running a 9.02 to come fourth in the prelims, and then running a 9.27 to come in 7th in the finals. Michael had some company for this event, Ben Cooper, who ran a great time of 9.31, coming in 9th in the prelims.
It’s 200m time. You thought she was done, but Ari Afolabi still has more to show off, running a speedy 27.47 to come in 6th place overall, she’s unstoppable! Lucca Bibbey ran under Zainab Ibrahim, running an awesome time of 29.13 with a 3rd-place finish in her heat. Sumin Cho wasn’t far behind, running a great time of 31.06.
Michael VanHootegem was all alone again for the 200m but still showed up with an impressive time of 24.02.
In the 400m, Lucca Bibbey was all alone for the Illini and still crushed the competition, running a 1:03.68 to win her heat and come in 8th place overall.
I know you’ve been eagerly waiting for him, so let’s dive right in. Tyler Klein, in his usual fashion, ran an incredible 49.48 for a 1st place overall finish, beating out his second-place opponent by almost 2 seconds, crazy! Luke Nelson had a similarly impressive day, coming second in his heat with a time of 54.40 for a 10th-place overall finish. Dante Ragozzino continued the trend and came second in his heat with a great time of 1:01.19.
Time for the 800m! Carlin Hass led for the women, with an impressive time of 2:33.27 to claim 8th place overall. Christina Li had an awesome race, running a speedy 3:02.44.
On the men’s side, it was Michael Rizk leading the pack, winning his heat and coming 3rd overall with his time of 2:00.50. Henry Hornbrook was close behind, with a speedy time of 2:03.19. IXC Legend Spencer Nelson stayed right on Henry’s tail throughout the race, coming in close behind at 2:06.64. Jose Ocegueda Zuniga rounded it out for the Illini with an awesome time of 2:21.58.
We may have had no women run the mile, but our men definitely made up for that with some awesome times! Treasurer Extraordinaire James Stanley smoked the competition with a time of 4:25.16 coming in 3rd place overall! Everyone’s favorite Air Force Cadet Percy Moser was close behind James with his incredible time of 4:29.63 to come in 7th place. Anthony Rizk and Aidan Markiewicz ran close together the entire race, and together came right in under the 5-minute mark, running 4:57.59 and 4:59.07 respectively. Chicago native Gabriel Inojosa was right behind, running a speedy 4:59.38. Nathaniel Lenning took a break from planning Club Relays to run an awesome time of 5:20.76, with Jose Ocegueda Zuniga right on his tail with a time of 5:24.30.
In the 3000m run, it was Annika Luthe representing the Illini with a great time of 12:55.96.
Skipping right to the jumps, let’s take a look at the men’s long jump. Henry Martinez led in this event with a great jump of 5.56m (18’ 3”). Ben Cooper was close behind with an awesome jump of 5.33m (17’ 6”), with both athletes coming first and third, respectively in their flight!
Let’s go straight to the women’s high jump. Both of our amazing athletes, Bella Brunke and Gwen Bottom tied for 7th place with an awesome jump of 1.42m (4’ 8”).
That’s gonna be all for this week!
As I said before, our team this week was smaller, as many of our athletes took the week off to prepare for the awesome, amazing, the incredible Illinois Club Relays, happening next Saturday, February 27th right here in Champaign at the University of Illinois Armory. We’ll start live coverage when the meet starts at 11:00, so make sure to tune in for the centerpiece of winter track and field!
Until next time,
I-L-L
Meet Results: https://chippedtiming.com/meets/
Meet Pictures: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-OkoVQ8T6Ci2qbtjihZOwcbLVDFXvUzf