During the last two weekends, the Illinois Track and Field Club competed in three meets: the Rose-Hulman Early Bird, the Washington University Invite, and the Knox College Outdoor Open.
Rose-Hulman
At Rose-Hulman, Junior Lauren Choi started Spring Break with her club record in video views with her 3k steeple chase. Although she fell, she was still within 10 seconds of her PR in the event, finishing 2nd in the meet with a 12:49.26. Behind her in 3rd was Freshman Anna Piazza (13:19.87). Sophomore Ryan Somerfield and Senior Jon Hootman also got their seed times needed for the NIRCA nats in two weeks with their times of 10:33.22 (6th) and 10:37.74 (7th), respectively. Sophomore Chris Kennedy was the only non-steepler sent from ITC as he finished 12th in the 5k.
Washington University
Due to construction at Washington University”s Athletic fields, ITC could not send it”s full squad to the Wash U invite. Only Friday competitors were invited for this year, but the team should be back next year for both Friday and Saturday. This limited the team to the 5k, 10k, and Greg Netols individually went unattached.
Graduate Student Brad Coyle was ITC”s top performer in the 5k, cruising in his last 400m in 63s on his way to a 15:33 to be 2nd in his heat. Senior Adam Cobert took 3rd in the previous heat, running an impressive 15:39, almost a minute faster than Cobert”s Sophomore year race at WashU. Coach Krauklis commented that Cobert ran that fast ”out of spite” for being seeded at 16:10. Senior Joe Zeller was within 3 seconds of a PR with his 15:43, and Sophomore Jack Morrissey set an 11 second PR with his 16:21. If you have been following the girls from the 30 (Junior Abby Madden, Senior Monica O”Connor and Senior Paige Oboikovitz), then you know that big PRs are just around the corner. Madden was ITC”s top finisher in the 5k with her 19:05, while O”Connor posted a 16 second PR (19:24) and Oboikovitz posted a 6 second PR (19:30).
Sophomore David Choi and Freshman Michael Frintner both ran their first 10k with the club, placing 6th (33:22) and 7th (33:52), respectively. Senior Greg Netols placed 6th in the 1500m with his 4:02. This time was 4 seconds faster than his last time at WashU.
Knox College
Knox college was the replacement meet for all that were expecting to run WashU on Saturday. Although there were some inherent flaws with how the meet was run, it gave good competition for many of our athletes. The women scored 40 points to take 8th in the meet, while the men took 11th (without distance).
In Junior Caroline Szostak”s first 100m dash with the club, she moved to number 7 on the all-time list with her 7th place performance of 13.19. Junior Lauren Jonen ran within .8 of the club record in her 200m performance (26.98, 3rd), followed closely by Sophomore Jess Ayers (27.35, 4th) and Szostak (28.49, 8th). Jonen and Ayers would also rock their 400m, with Jonen placing 1st in 59.14 and Ayers placing 4th in 61.40. Sophomores Hannah Behle and Selena Wallace placed 3rd (2:31.38) and 4th (2:32.78), respectively, in their 800m.
In a race where the barriers were being properly placed while steeplers were already going over them, Junior Ryan Kelch placed 4th (10:44.93). Freshman Brian Griffin started his outdoor career with a 5th place effort in the 1500m (4:23.02), followed closely by Senior Jon Hootman (4:28.32). Junior Rashaun Warner practically ran a 3:08 in the 1200m by finishing his 400m, stopping, and then jogging straight to the check-in table for his 800m. Other notable races had Senior Jayme Roberts and Adam Goldsher place 6th (23.46) and 7th (23.68), respectively, in the 200m dash, and Senior Steven Decker and Roberts place 7th (52.12) and 9th (53.22), respectively, in the 400m dash. Ross Romane placed 10th in both the shot put (11.87m) and discus (36.81m). Romane now has the 6th best discus throw in club history.
