Happy March!
Welcome back to the amazing world of club track and field! We kicked off this outdoor season with a small but mighty group of athletes heading to Indiana Wesleyan University for the Polar Bear Invitational on Saturday, 3/23. Let’s dive right in!
Let’s start with the women’s 100m dash, where sprinter extraordinaire Ari Afolabi wowed the competition with an impressive 12.83 to claim 8th place overall. Christina Jordan was close behind, coming in with a speedy 13.88
For the women’s 100m hurdles, it was again Ari Afolabi leading the Illini, with an awesome performance of 17.04. Christina Jordan was again right on her tail, coming in just milliseconds behind with a time of 17.87. Brooke Bouwens closed out an impressive group with a time of 18.90.
On the men’s 400m dash, it was Koen Brown all alone, yet that didn’t stop him from running a great time of 56.89.
Brooke Bouwens dominated in the women’s 400m hurdles, coming in 6th place overall with a rapid time of 1:10.73.
Moving on to the distance, Anika Luthe was the sole representative for the women’s distance team, starting the day out with an awesome 3:03.26 time in the 800m dash.
With the men, Easton Rosen led the pack, with an impressive time of 2:02.17, fast enough to earn him a 10th place finish overall by 5 milliseconds. James Stanley didn’t let Easton out of his sight, coming in just barely behind in with a time of 2:02.86. Aidan Markiewicz had a similarly strong start to the outdoor season with a speedy time of 2:12.40. Gabe Benson rounds it out for us with a superb time of 2:38.77.
For the 1500, it was again Anika Luthe running solo for the women, but she still crushed it and ran a quick time of 6:03.80.
On the men’s side, it was again Easton Rosen out in front, running a speedy time of 4:07.83 to start his outdoor season. James Stanley stuck with Easton and finished just a few seconds behind, running an awesome time of 4:14.78.
In the field event, we may have only had one competitor, but it was still an incredible performance. Christina Jordan was our sole field events person, and she didn’t disappoint, jumping 1.6m (5’ 3”) to claim 3rd place overall in the high jump!
That about wraps it up for us!
We kept it short and sweet this week, but we’ll be back later this week for the 2-day Big Blue Classic at Eastern Illinois University from Friday, March 29 to Saturday, March 30!
Until next time,
I-L-L
Meet Results: https://in.milesplit.com/meets/586601-iwu-polar-bear-invitational-2024/results