When I say round and purple, some people might think of an eggplant or Tinky Winky or perhaps Barney the Dinosaur #NeverForget. But for ITFC, we think of the friendly confines of ONU”s Perry Recreation Center. A bright 200m track featuring an amazing array of talent and performances.
This meet was special because it was the debut for many, showed us some PRs and also some changes to the club leader boards.
Ladies first. Lauren Grant left Bourbonnais with TWO PRs in the 200 (28.32) and 400 (1:03.02). Her outdoor PRs are 29.85 and 1:05.38, in case you didn”t know. So far this indoor season she has PR”d in the 60, the 200, the 300, the 400, and was on a ”PR” 4×4. Big congratulations to her. This. Girl. Is. On. Fire.
Malorie Moore made her club debut with a 29.77 200 and in the 4×400 relay. Also making her debut in dramatic fashion was Ashley Raehsler. She long jumped into club history with a 5.14m mark, 9th overall out of 25 women. She also triple jumped 10.42m, which places her 3rd in the ITFC leaderboards. Congratulations to both of these women on their club debuts!!
Emily Foley chased the club record in the 600, running 1:44.37. While she missed out on the 1:43.70 mark set by the Legendary Lauren Jonen, Emily is now #3 in the 600.
Inga Augustaitis had a phenomenal day in the shot put, throwing 9.22m. A year ago, she threw 8.45m at IWU. A well-deserved club PR for her!
For the gentlemen, Thomas Harris established himself as the short-sprint man to beat in NIRCA. He ran a 200m Club PR in 23.27.
Andy Marszewski has done the 60m dash before. At IWU in December, he unfortunately hurt his hamstring and finished the race in a time of over 20 seconds. But as athletes, we understand that injuries are an inevitable part of the game. The intensity and dedication we put to getting faster and stronger is applied to getting healthy, and Andy demonstrated this the past month. After patient and careful recovery, he”s back in business running the 60m (7.59) and 200 (24.02). Welcome back, Andy.
Mason Rosenberg, newcomer Tim Doll, and Alex Bienduga also posted times in the 200: 23.99, 24.47, and 23.71, respectively.
Bienduga also raced President Mateusz Lopez in the 400. Both men ran 52.39, but my professor is a stickler when it comes to significant figures so Bienduga technically ran 0.002 seconds faster. Tim Doll also posted an impressive 53.26 second 400.
Connor Murphy ran 2:58.87 in the 1000, which comes out to roughly a 4:48 mile pace. For a guy that exclusively trains with sprinters and jumpers, this is pretty darn impressive.
The men”s mile featured Cody Lund and Quinn Todzo. Cody went in confident and ready to PR, but he didn”t think he”s PR by 9 seconds. At club relays last year he ran 4:42, today he ran 8 laps in 4:33.05. Quinn Todzo also PR”s by almost 3.5 seconds. A great day for both of these guys.
Today was the first meet for the throws crew to show what they”ve been working all off season for. After Inga”s great performance, Liam Nassib threw 11.13m, his second best mark ever. Kelvin Cross, a freshman who you can find training EVERY Tuesday night chucked the shot 8.72m.
Congratulations to all the athletes that competed. We”re 20 days away from Club Relays. If anyone”s wondering I don”t have a date to the 4×4.