Last Saturday, the Illinois Track and Field Club traveled to Bloomington to compete at the Illinois Wesleyan Titan Open. While club veterans scored many team points, this year’s recruits had very promising performances of their own.
Women Highlights
Junior Lauren Jonen, Caroline Szostak, and Graduate Student Erin Murphy all qualified in the preliminary round in the 60m dash. Graduate Student Chaznite Sullivan missed qualifying in her ITC debut 60m by only 12 hundredths of a second. In the finals, Murphy had the 8th fastest time overall, edging out ninth place by a thousandth of a second with a 8.397s.
In her second event of the day, Jonen would place 4th in the 400m dash with a time of 1:00.32. Murphy would take 10th in that event with a 1:02.16. It was these two who had extraordinary performances in the 5th place 4x400m relay composed of Jonen, Murphy, Szostak, and Freshman Kathleen Murphy, which ran a time of 4:16.68.
Freshmen Erin McKee and Emily Foley would run the 800m together, with McKee outlasting Foley for a time of 2:32.90, good for 13th overall. In the 3000m run, Junior Abby Madden and Senior Monica O’Connor would build their way to 6th (11:25.12) and 8th (11:27.60) places, respectively after starting the race in the back of the pack.
Men Highlights
Senior Jayme Roberts had the seventh fastest preliminary 60m dash time of 7.24s. He would decide to save his efforts for the 400m dash, where he had the 9th fastest time overall with a 52.17. The 4x400m relay consisting of Roberts, Decker, Barber and Caplan ran 2 seconds faster than last week for a time of 4:36.81. In the 800m, Senior Greg Netols played catchup to get past Senior Steven Decker to give times of 2:00.50 (12th) and 2:01.10 (14th) respectively. Sophomore Ryan Sommerfield finished the 800m in 19th (2:04.00).
Senior Evan White took home 4th place in the Mile Run with a time of 4:27.03 in the second heat. Freshman Quinn Todzo took out his heat of the mile with a 30m lead after one lap, which he maintained for the remainder of the race as he finished with a time of 4:57.65.
Graduate Students Henry Wolf and Brad Coyle performed well in the 3000m, as Wolf would place 6th (9:12.33) and Coyle 13th (9:20.18). Wolf, very much like Madden and O’Connor, started the heat in the back. “Once I looked back and saw I was last, I knew it was time to go,” Wolf remarked once back to the Illini Camp. Wolf then spent the rest of the race methodically hunting down 12 runners of that heat. Senior Al Snyder and Sophomore Tyler Dixon paced each other to establish season PRs of 9:36.64 and 9:40.29, respectively.
Spin
After 2 consecutive weeks containing full squad meets, there are many performances to be happy about.
On the distance end of the spectrum, we had stellar performances by those who recovered from injuries incurred during the cross season. Abby Madden and Monica O’Connor raced textbook smart; their times placing them with the other three girls already under 11:30 in the 3000m, which is 19:12 pace in the 5k. Al Snyder ran a reserved race in the 3000m, but his last lap (32.5) was the fastest closing lap for distance that day, making me wonder how much faster than 9:36 he can run.
Senior Evan White, Senior Greg Netols, and Sophomore Jared Ripoli have already gone under 4:30 in the mile, with Freshman Jack O’Neil (4:32) and Sophomore Ryan Sommerfield close behind.
Freshman Quinn Todzo ran fearlessly to lead his debut Mile in its entirety. That’s the type of mentality that could make a great steepler.
Using the times from this year, a men’s 4×800 consisting of the efforts of White, Decker, Netols, and Sommerfield would already be lower than 8:08, with the likelihood of that time being significantly lower by Club Relays.
Although gradual, the sprinting core is getting faster with each race. Roberts and Decker seem to excel in any event they are placed in. Same can be said about Jonen and Murphy.
This Weekend
ITC travels to Jacksonville to take on the Illinois College Dr. Jim Green Invite. It’s another full squad meet with a lot of new faces running on the track, so get excited, and keep running!
