This past weekend at the University of Illinois Armory, the Illinois Track Club hosted 18 other club teams from around the Midwest in the largest club-only meet to date. For the first time all season, the entire Illinois team was able to compete in the presence of all their teammates, as previous to this the team had several split squads going to different meets.
As the Armory filled in with all of the competing teams, the races began with the slow heats of the women”s 3,000 meters. In the first section, Kathryn Krueger did an excellent job of pulling her teammates Kelsey Wiora and Emily McGowan through to great times of 12:42.25 and 12:41.74 respectively. While Kathryn herself fell off slightly to a 12:52.63, her self-sacrifice in pacing her teammate provided a perfect guideline for other Illini athletes. In this heat, Lainey Ortiz and Vicky Ngo-Lam ran credible times of 13:51.13 and 13:06.53 respectively. Kelly Kramsey (Illinois Elite) and Jess Ang both ran well together in the second heat, with times of 12:11.97 and 12:17.67, while Catherine Hajduk was one of the surprises of the day, posting a superb time of 11:55.10.
Moving on to the slow heats of the men”s 3,000 meters, while we had no men in the slowest heat, in the second of five heats there were Greg Chavez, Sam Ricker, Minray Yang, and Steve Kleine (Illinois Elite) representing the ITC. In this race, Sam Ricker ran a phenomenal PR of 10:08, 12 seconds faster than his seed time, while Minray and Steve still ran decent races, going 11 flat and 10:20 respectively. In the next heat, Henry Wolf had himself a banner day, running 9:24, and Chris Valicka, Dan Herber (Illinois Elite) and Chris Hazel also acquitted themselves well. Out of the next heat, and last of the slow heats, Al Snyder made a splash in his first Club Relays, running a PR of 9:16. The rest of the 6 Illinois men in the heat all gave a good showing of themselves and the club as well.
In the 4×800 meter relays, both Illinois A-teams won, with the women winning handily in 9:56 and the men eking out a victory on a last lap kick by Ryan Jorgenson, 8:02.1 to 8:03.96 over Indiana. In the women”s 60, Erin Murphy was 2nd overall in 8.55 and Nao Nishio finished right behind her in 8.66 to lead the Illinois women to a first place showing in that relay event. On the men”s side, Fuad Akinbiyi (7.27) and Matt Halberthal (7.28) went 4-5, putting the Illini second in that event. In a rare slip-up for the sprints squad, all three (1 men”s, 2 women”s) 4×200 meter relay teams were DQ”ed for poor handoffs. It was a disappointing result for the sprinters, and something they are striving to improve in practices.
Next on the track were the fast heat of both the men”s and women”s 3,000 meters. On the women”s side, Jess Mulcrone led her group with excellent teamwork and pacing to bring our top three women to under 11:30 finishes, all the while finishing with an outstanding 11:25 herself. Mike Frigo kicked off his standout day by winning the 3,000 comfortably in a 8:49.56, winning by over 6 seconds over second place. Brendan McDonnell, still dealing with the ill effects of a cold, ran a gutsy 8:57.97.
The sprinters came roaring back from their disappointing 4×200”s in the Sprint Medley Relays and set new records on both the men”s (3:44.00) and women”s (4:46.16) sides. That is definitely the sort of resiliency and heart that will be needed in the hunt for a NCTFA title. In the 4 by mile relays, the Illini women”s team won by over a minute over the next closest competitor Michigan, while Mike Frigo came back with an amazing anchor leg to bury Indiana 18:07 to 18:11. He took the stick several seconds down and turned that into a several second lead in the last 200 meters. In the last track event, Illinois won both the men”s and women”s 4×400 meter relays, both in new meet records. Thus concluded a phenomenal day on the track for the Illinois Track Club.
In the field events, success was no less harder to find for our Illini athletes. In the high jump relay, Erin Murphy and Emily McGown led the team to victory. Erin continued her streak of good performances in the long jump, setting a new club record of 4.87 meters, helping the team score a second place win there. Lizzie Gauen competed in an off event, and with Katharina Rains, earned first place in the shot put relay. On the men”s side, Tyler Blum and Steve Kelder garnered a second place in the high jump relay, and Steve went on to place 5th in the long jump relay (alongside Ben Kanevsky) and third in the triple jump relay (also with Ben). Chad Bobbitt won the shot put, and with Matt Kmet, won first place in the shot put relay.
After the last gun had gone off and the last jumper left the pit, the team scores were tabulated. The Illinois Track Club won going away on both the men”s and women”s sides, winning 82-51 over northern rival Wisconsin on the women”s side, and 86-69 over a quickly improving Northern Illinois squad on the men”s side. Thus, the cow was retained for another year, and the Illinois Track Club swept the team titles for yet another year.
With these great results in the bag, indoor season has now concluded, and the Illini are back to training hard in the search for fast times and team titles in outdoors.
