Today is a great day. Do you want to know why? Not only is the sun shining and the birds chirping, but we have officially started the 2024-2025 Track Season! I know you all have been waiting months for track season to start again, so I can officially pronounce, it’s Track Time!
Once again, My name is Adam, and I’ll be your webmaster extraordinaire throughout this season. You may remember me from last season, but I’m back and better than ever to help share all the excitement of this upcoming season!
We started it off with a bang at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois for the Titan First Chance Meet on Saturday, 12/7. Now enough said, let’s get into the events!
We’ll kick things off with the sprint events, starting with the Men’s 60m Dash. What can I say? It is only the first meet of the year, and the incredible Tyler Klein has already won his first meet. His time of 6.93 put him in 2nd place in the prelims, where he went on to improve on his time to drop a 6.87 in the finals, securing him an amazing 1st place finish overall, congrats! Close behind was Austin Eckels, whose time of 7.08 placed him in second place in his heat, and brought him to a 10th place finish overall! Andrew Mclauchlan made his club debut with a speedy time of 7.47, a great start to the season. Veteran Matas Carmichael showed he’s going to be a formidable foe this season with a time of 7.65. Head Coach Ryan Fredericks took a break from the mid-distance to run a shorter distance, coming in at a 7.72. In a race for the ages, our next three athletes all finished within 0.07 seconds of each other, Ryan Pearlman led the pack with a 7.75, followed behind by Roel Boon with a 7.76, and Kamil Kotarski closed out the pack of great times with a 7.82. Edison Zhu wasn’t far behind, coming in with a speedy time of 7.91 to start the season. To close it out, no better way than to end with a tie, with both Tyler West and Sean Hudson running an awesome 8.22 to get things started.
No track meet would be complete without a hurdles event, especially the 60m Hurdles! Matas Carmichael led us in this event with an awesome time of 9.38, a great way to start the season, and an easy 10th-place finish overall! Kamil Kotarski wasn’t far behind, coming in with a speedy 9.64 to get things started.
Increasing the distance a bit, it’s 200m time! On the women’s side, Vicky Klein Gebbink set down the handball and picked up spikes to make her track and field debut running a speedy 29.38 during her first-ever track meet!
On the men’s side, it was again Tyler Klein leading the pack, with an incredible time of 21.93 to earn him a 2nd place overall finish, what can’t he do? Austin Eckels had a great race to kick things off, running a speedy 23.08 to claim 1st place in his heat and 5th place overall. So, in a fun twist of fate, all Illinois runners except for TK raced against each other in 2 entirely Illinois heats, providing a great level of friendly competition among the athletes. Coming close behind Austin in that first ITFC heat were Darryl Boston Jr, taking a break from his awesome Instagram takeover to drop a 24.09 for his club debut, and Ryan Fredericks close behind, coming in at a 24.45. Roel Boon led the second ITFC heat to victory with his great time of 24.90 to start the season. Kamil Kotarski was right on his tail, coming in at a super 25.39. Salvatore Sgro closed out the first ITFC heat with a great time of 25.97 to put his mark on his club debut. Arjun Appel was up next in the second heat, with an awesome time of 27.04. Sean Hudson was close behind, coming in at a speedy 28.15 to get his season off to a great start. Tyler West closed it out for us, running a 28.75 to mark a successful club debut!
In an indoor track classic fashion, it was time for the 300m race. Matas Carmichael was the only one brave enough to race it on the men’s side, running a great time of 38.20.
Keeping with the sprints brings us to the Women’s 600m dash. Lenny Sterritt made a big splash for her club debut, running a time of 1:50.22 to score her 4th place overall!
The men’s side did not disappoint, with a few incredible races. Henry Hornbrook kicked off his season with an awesome time of 1:27.57, winning his heat by 0.3 seconds and coming in for a 1st place overall finish, wow! Max Boughner also had a great race, running a time of 1:35.90 to win his heat and come in 7th place overall! Jason Yang wrapped up these awesome performances with a speedy time of 1:42.88 for a great mark in his first track meet!
Let’s turn the distance up a notch with the Women’s 1-mile run! Following her impressive 600m performance, Lenny Sterritt brought the heat again, destroying the competition with a time of 5:41.68 to claim 1st place overall, more than 8 seconds in front of second place, wow!
Keeping with the trend of Illini Domination, it was Maxwell Maloney, making his club track debut to run an incredible 4:36.30 to easily win his heat and come 1st place overall, Congrats! Fundraising Coordinator Extraordinaire Dakota Amar was not far behind, running a 4:38.12 to kick off his season, easily grabbing a 3rd-place finish! Morgan Frederick kept up the trend of dominant season openers with a time of 4:47.13, speedy enough to claim a 6th-place finish! Max Boughner closed it out for us, running an awesome time of 5:02.91.
The only brave soul, Laurits Stoffers was the sole Illini in the Men’s 3000m run, but that didn’t stop him from having a great race, running an 11:49.32 to start the season strong!
It’s relay time! For the men’s 4x400m relay, it was Darryl Boston Jr, Henry Hornbrook, Roel Boon, and Ryan Fredericks, running a great time of 3:38.48 to get a 4th place finish!
Hippity hoppoty, it’s jump time! For the men’s High Jump, Laurits Stoffers had an amazing day, setting a big PR of 1.75m (5’ 8.75”) to kick off the season! In the men’s Long Jump, Edison Zhu made his mark with a great jump of 5.41m (17’ 9”) for his club debut! In the men’s triple jump, Andrew Mclauchlan leaped to an amazing 12.05m (39’ 6.5”) for a strong start to the season, with Edison Zhu close behind with an awesome jump of 10.79m (35’ 5”)
Last, but certainly not least, it’s throwing time! In the women’s shot put, Ivy Del Real showed off her skills with an impressive throw of 8.98m (29’ 5”), starting the season off with a PR!
On the men’s side, Georgios Avdis led the squad with an incredible throw of 9.78m (32’ 1”) to kick off the series of great performances! Next up was Sean Hudson, with an impressive throw of 8.60m (28’ 2.75”). Closing it out was Hayden Lewis, who had a great throw of 8.41m (27’ 7.25”) to get the season started!
Well, that about wraps up this meet. Although it had a smaller group of athletes competing, we still had many incredible performances and awesome ways to start off the season. Sadly we now head off to winter break, and won’t compete again for another month or so. Our next meet will resume in mid-January, feel free to check out the Instagram in the meantime for updates!
That’s going to be all for now, Have a happy and safe holiday!
Until next time,
I-L-L!
Meet Results: https://www.tfrrs.org/results/88039/IWU_Titan_First_Chance