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For the seventh consecutive year, the Illinois Track and Field Club won its home meet, Illinois Club Relays, on both the Men and Women”s sides. Although they have had close scores in the past, no meet has ever pushed ITC to use all of its depth and strategy before. The best example of meet tactics was shown by Seniors Greg Netols and Evan White in their mile run. In the past couple weeks, these two have competed with each other in an attempt to break the club record of 4:17. In this race, however, Netols and White formed a two-man wall and forced the whole pack besides the first 2 runners to slow down. That pack consisted of 3 Hoosiers, the team ITC beat only by 8 points total. The two seniors were able to finish 3rd (4:26) and 7th (4:28), and Indiana’s 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th runners all ran in the mid 4:30s. This allowed Freshmen Jack O’Neil (4:32) and Mike Mayer (4:35) to make up ground in the 2^nd heat and win the event altogether for ITC.

Women Highlights

The ITC women had by far their best performance in the 60m dash they have had all season, as Sophomore Jess Ayers, Junior Caroline Szostak, Junior Lauren Jonen, and Graduate Student Erin Murphy took first through fourth, respectively. Ayers made her first 60 meters of the season a memorable one as she broke the club record by .08s with her time of 8.15, while Szostak is now tied for 3^rd on the all-time list (for the third week in a row) with her time of 8.26. Murphy would partake in 8 events total, including her club/meet record in long jump of 5.1m, her second place effort in a club record triple jump of 11.00m (ousted by a 1cm), her fourth place high jump PR of 1.45m (lost by 5cm), and her 5^th place shot put performance combined with Sophomore Ehitare Emuze’s second place club record throw of 9.91m gave ITC the win in the shot put. Sophomore Haley Dorfman tied for first in the high jump with her jump of 1.5m to secure 1^st place in the high-jump relay, and Freshman Maggie Gruben was our second best long jumper to give us 1^st in the long jump relay as well.

On the distance side, this is a very different squad that showed up than what was at NIRCA Cross nationals. With Grimes now a varsity athlete, Mocogni an early graduate, Burkhardt recovering from injury, Guetterman in Tanzania studying abroad, and Choi also recovering from injury, it was time for our younger women to step up. No one stepped up more than Junior Abaigael Madden, who now has a better time in her indoor mile (5:37) than her outdoor 1500m. Madden placed 15^th in the mile while getting a PR of 10 seconds. Madden is also 6^th on the all-time 3000m run list with her time of 10:53.04. It is always a pleasure to see her start from behind and build up near the top in her races. Freshman Lexy Rudofski is fully healthy again (Wooo!), and made her track debut with the team’s second fastest mile time of 5:43.17 (20^th in the meet). Senior Monica O’Connor was a scorer in both the mile (5:43.23) and the 3000m run (11:08.03).

Now it’s time for a lot of names and times to be spewed off (AKA relay results without splits…)!

The 4×200 (Szostak, Murphy, Ayers, and Jonen) took 1^st in the meet with their almost record breaking performance of 1:50.04 (the record is 1:49.7). The 4×400 got their club/meet record as Ayers, Murphy, Senior Thea Cudnowski, and Jonen tore down the house with their time of 4:08.1. Our second 4×400 consisting of Sophomores Hannah Behle and Selena Wallace, Freshman Kathleen Murphy, and Szostak ran good enough for third place with their time of 4:30.1. The SMR consisting of the usual suspects (do I have to say Szostak, Murphy, Jonen, and Cudnowski again?) took first with their time of 4:23.8. They were only 1.3 seconds away from the club record.

Men Highlights

It’s a shame the men’s team had to oblige by NIRCA rules and disallow the scoring of Allen Terry and Nic Baumgartner, because they are so gifted in the 60m hurdles. Terry won the 60m hurdles with his time of 8.63, Baumgartner was second with his 8.92, and Senior Tyler Blum finished fourth with his time of 9.33. However, they were unable to score points. Blum was able to take second in the high jump with his 1.8m flight. Paired with Sophomore Mike Kreiser (1.65m) they were able to tie for second place in the event. Junior Sebastian Alvis (11.73m) and Unknown age Adam Goldsher (11.49m) combined their efforts to win the Triple Jump Relay. Unknown ages Ross Romane (11.94m), Geoff Segal (10.67m), Adam Auten (10.46m), and Junior Kevin Jorgensen (9.53m) dismantled the competition in the shot put, placing 1^st through 4^th respectively. According to an unnamed source, the meet record may have been thrown with a 14lb shot, so these might be the best throwers we have ever had.

I don’t want to go into too much more detail about the Mile, but I would like to point out that we had 10 guys under 4:50 and in the top 50 in the mile (out of 128). We have lots of depth when we go into Bloomington. The 3000m run turned to the unexpected as the first heat’s Sophomore Jared Ripoli DNF’d due to a hip injury. This caused graduate students Brad Coyle and Henry Wolf to step up in the second heat. Pushed by Illinois Elite’s Frigo and Spillone, Coyle and Wolf had mega PR’s as they finished at 8:56.39 (12^th) and 8:57.91 (13^th) good to place the team 3^rd in the event. Sophomore David Choi (9:10.28) finished 4^th for ITC.

The relays started out grim, as our A 4×800 team had a mishap with their baton, which forced the B 4×800 team (Sophomore Ryan Somerfield, Freshman Jack O’Neil, Freshman Griffin Bojan, and Senior Michael Giberson) to step up and take 4^th overall with their time of 8:15.70. 3 out of 5 4×800 teams for Illinois were under 8:20. ITC finally put together a good 4x200m (Senior Jayme Roberts, Adam Goldsher, Sophomore Mike Kreiser, and Matt Lopez) at Club Relays, as they broke the meet record and are now #2 all-time for ITC with their time of 1:33.93. The relay that put an exclamation mark on the meet was the SMR (consisting of Lopez, Goldsher, Roberts, and Decker) which beat the club record by 4 seconds with their winning time of 3:35.41. The 4x400m (Roberts, Lopez, Freshman George Gunter, and Decker) ran the 3^rd fastest indoor time for ITC ever, finishing 2^nd at the meet with their time of 3:29.45.

Just to hype up Club Relays even more, I am posting the Indoor Performances 2015. For many of you, this is the last opportunity to improve your time for this indoor season, and I have faith in all of you. I expect a lot of new times on the tops of those lists!

Happy Running!

Champaign, IL— Just an hour ago, Head Coach Eric De Guevara sent out the performance list for Club Relays. Find it here.

This is not the official heat sheet for Saturday. A couple things about the list:

1. Lots of people to run with

27 Teams, roughly 1000 entries in 30 events (men and women). Competition brings out the best times. There are 143 men seeded in the mile. This likely means that there are 9 heats judging from last year”s amounts. With that comes a small variance of seed times. 13 people are seeded at 4:50. Any runner could theoretically run with any other one in that heat. If an opponent makes a smart move, you can too. Trust your training, your coaches, and yourself. If you must up the courage, you could be in for a large PR this Saturday, regardless if you are our top runner or our 50th runner.

2. Seed times are questionable.

The most obvious example of this is Cincinnati using their average individual time for their relay time. I hope this gets changed so they are in the correct heat and not in the fastest for all their events, and that they have 4 people running the relay. However, there are times/distances that I know are underestimated. I don”t know if this is a coaching move, so I”ll just mention the most obvious. Graduate Student Yemi Sonoiki just jumped over 5m last meet (check the last post to see the actual distance), but is seeded at 1.73m. I”m pretty sure he is taller than that distance.

3. Indiana is coming for us.

Anybody who runs cross country knows what these guys are capable on the distance end, but they have added sprinters and jumpers to their repertoire and are frequently the top seed in the race. Don”t panic just yet, because just as everyone should know, we have the deepest team in NIRCA (Michigan is a close 2nd in this regard). I just want to bring this to your attention so that if you ever lose motivation in a race and see a crimson and cream jersey ahead of you, you work towards passing them.

4. I don”t know how to predict scores.

These relays are very weirdly scored. Some events require 4 runners while most field events require 2 competitors. This means a larger amount of people than you think score in the event. Who is going to be our fourth girl in the mile, or who is going to step up in the SMR?

Two more records went down this week as the Illinois Track Club sent split squads to the EIU Friday Night Special, Olivet Last Chance Qualifier, and Illinois Orange and Blue to bring momentum into next weeks Club Relays.

EIU Highlights

We only sent 2 competitors to this year”s Friday Night Special, a smidgen of what we have sent in the past. Senior Joe Zeller took out his 3000m hard in hopes of a breakout race. It cost him in the end as he only took 8th place with a 9:20.57. Although it was his last 3k of his undergraduate career, look for him to post major times in the 5k in outdoor. Senior Michael Giberson also lost his pace in his 1000m, taking 9th with a 2:49.60. Giberson looks to bounce back in the top seeded 4x800m this weekend at Club Relays.

Orange & Blue Highlights

Graduate Student Erin Murphy won the triple jump with the best flight of her life, jumping a club record of 10.96m, which is 1.21 feet further than her outdoor triple jump record. Murphy also ran the clubs 4th fastest time in the 60m dash with her time of 8.33. Look to see Murphy”s name a lot at the top of the club relay”s results.

Senior Jayme Roberts was the first club member to beat 7.2 in the 60m this year, as he placed 6th in the 60m and had a qualifying time of 7.17. Roberts also placed 4th in the 200m (23.10). As of right now, he has the best times for ITC in those event so far.

Senior Steven Decker took second in the 800m with his time of 1:56.18. If he ran 1 tenth of a second faster, he would have taken down Ryan Jorgensen”s indoor record. Decker is the projected anchor for the 4x800m this Saturday. Senior Evan White moved up to third on the records sheet with his 6th place performance in the mile (4:20.04). In head-to-head races with Senior Greg Netols, White now holds a 1-1 record, as they will probably have a ”best 2 out 3” tiebreaker this Saturday at Club Relays.

Graduate Student Yemi Sonoiki also got on the Club”s top ten list with his long jump performance of 5.68m.

A special shoutout to Graduate Student Emma Grimes, who recently moved up to the varsity team. Within a week of varsity training, she has already surpassed her old 3000m time by 25 seconds with her time of 10:08! I don”t know how many races are left in indoor, but she”s right on the brink of breaking two key milestones, breaking 10:00 in the 3k and 5:00 in the mile (her PR is 5:05.21). Grimes was vital to the 2nd place finish (2nd place overall individually too) this year at NIRCA cross nationals, and has a ridiculous amount of club records. We wish her the best of luck in her future races.

Olivet Highlights

Nick Baumgartner. Matt Lopez. Brad Coyle. Caroline Szostak. 4 names that were unknown to the ITC database until late last semester, but these guys/gal can really run. Baumgartner has not even run a minute of races for the club, yet he owns the 60m hurdles record by over half a second, as he took 7th with a time of 8.77! In Lopez”s first 400m dash of his life, he earned a spot on the top seeded 4x400m team with this time of 53.07 which was good for 8th at Olivet. Lopez also had a PR in the 200m with his time of 23.79. Although Graduate Student Coyle has only raced for the club a few times, he is a clear leader and model of consistency. He placed 3rd in the 3000m with his time of 9:08.11. Caroline Szostak (pronounced Schostack?) has run at every opportunity given to her and is .06 seconds away from the club record in the 60m dash with her time of 8.29 (3rd). She also had a PR in the 200m dash with her time of 28.50.

Freshman Maggie Gruben pitted in the triple jump for the first time in her ITC career, as she jumped 8.73m. She is a likely second jumper to complete the triple jump relay at Club Relays. Freshman George Gunter debuted with a 2:03.13 in the 800m. Gunter is the 3rd member of the 4x800m this Saturday.

Last Saturday, ITC traveled to Marion, Indiana to compete at the Indiana Wesleyan Midwest Classic. In ITC”s first appearance at the meet, 11 people made their event debuts for the season.

Women”s Highlights

Graduate Student Caroline Szostak raced 4 times for the club Saturday, including an 8.33s qualifying 60m dash, putting her 3rd overall on the club”s all-time page, and placing 5th in the finals of the meet. Szostak also placed 7th in the 200m with a 29.53 and 8th in the 400m with a  1:05.73. Sophomore Selena Wallace started her season with an indoor PR of 2:31.80 in the 800m.

Men”s Highlights

Freshman Mike Mayer placed 4th in the mile with a time of 4:33.14. Not far behind him was 10th place Freshman Jerome Davis (4:41.24), 11th place Senior Al Snyder (4:42.80), and 16th place Freshman Brian Griffin (4:48.26). Freshman Jack O”Neil also placed 4th in his event, the 3000m run, with a time of 9:05.16. Sophomore Ryan Sommerfield placed 8th in the same race (9:29.44), followed by Junior Eric De Guevara (9:35.33) and Freshman Quinn Todzo (9:39.99).

Junior Sebastian Alvis had a season PR in the long and triple jumps. He placed 7th in the long jump with a 5.29m (an improvement by over a foot) and 3rd in the triple jump with a 11.81m (an improvement of 2 feet).

Adam Goldsher placed 7th in the 400m, running a 53.47. Goldsher also qualified in the 60m dash with his time of 7.33s. Freshman Griffin Bojan placed 1oth in the 800m with his time of 2:06.81.

Last weekend in Allendale, Michigan, ITC competed at the GVSU Big Meet. Despite blizzard traveling conditions, the Illini PR”d in 11 of 21 races, including 2 club records by Junior Lauren Jonen, and 2 almost club records by Seniors Steven Decker and Greg Netols.

Women Highlights

Junior Lauren Jonen placed 4th overall in the 400m dash with a time of 58.84, a club record by over a second. Jonen also ran a club record in the 200m, running a time of 26.41. Graduate Student Erin Murphy ran a PR in the 400m with the club”s 4th fastest indoor time of 1:00.39.

Freshman Erin McKee ran a 5:28.79 in the mile, the clubs 10th fastest time. Senior Paige Oboikovitz, Senior Monica O”Connor, and Junior Abby Madden all PR”d in the 3000m run as they finished 3rd (11:07.49), 4th (11:07.55), and 5th (11:09.33) in the third heat, respectively.

Men Highlights

Senior Greg Netols placed 3rd overall in the Mile Run with his time of 4:17.65, second on the club”s all-time Mile list. In the same race, Senior Evan White ran a 4:23.92, good for 15th in the meet and 4th on the club”s all time page. White also ran the club”s 8th fastest 3000m time with his 8:48.01. Sophomore Jared Ripoli kicked down Senior Joe Zeller in the next heat of the 3000m, running 8:59.11 and 8:59.23 respectively. Graduate Student Henry Wolf set a PR in the same race, running a 9:07.83.

Senior Steven Decker ran an outstanding race in the 5th heat of the 800m, running a 1:56.62, the 2nd fastest time in club history. Senior Jayme Roberts ran a PR in the 200m dash, tying the club”s 5th fastest time with a 22.96.

Last weekend, the Illinois Track and Field Club battled at the Illinois College Dr. Jim Green Invite. Of the sixteen competitors at the meet, ten had their first race of the season, and four had their first race/jumps for the Orange and Blue (or more accurately, white). Shoutouts to Adam Goldsher, Ruperto Alejandro, Daniel Reeter, and Matt Lopez for their ITC debuts.

Adam Goldsher debuted for the club in ”style,” as he ran the 4th fastest 60m dash time for ITC this year (7.28). According to the Results, he also ran the fastest 200m time in the meet, but unfortunately, his real time was not recorded (unless he really did run a club record 22.00?!?). Just as a slumping basketball shooter just needs to keep on shooting, Junior Beau Barber kept racing and ran the best he has in all of 2015 in the 200m and 400m dashes, clocking in at 25.14 and 56.62 respectively.

Senior Adam Cobert is in the progress of a triumphant return from an off-season injury, running his mile at 4:43.90, 2 seconds away from having the 2nd fastest time in his apartment. Right behind him, Freshman Michael Frintner (4:47.93) outlasted Sophomore David Choi (4:48.12).

Meanwhile, at the Olivet Nazarene Invite in Bourbonnais Senior Evan White ran the 8th fastest 3000m time in club history, racing an impressive 8:49.39 which was good for 4th in the meet. White will be looking forward to take surpass performances in the 3000m by club legends Mike Frigo, Mike Spillone and possibly Aaron Silver this Saturday at the 300m track of GVSU.

This weekend marks two really great meets for ITC as some travel to Allendale to compete at the GVSU Big Meet, while others compete at the Indiana Wesleyan University for the first time in club history.

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 8^th 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 4^th in the 400m dash with a time of 1:00.32. Murphy would take 10^th in that event with a 1:02.16. It was these two who had extraordinary performances in the 5^th 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 13^th overall. In the 3000m run, Junior Abby Madden and Senior Monica O’Connor would build their way to 6^th (11:25.12) and 8^th (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 9^th 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 (12^th) and 2:01.10 (14^th) respectively. Sophomore Ryan Sommerfield finished the 800m in 19^th (2:04.00).

Senior Evan White took home 4^th 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 6^th (9:12.33) and Coyle 13^th (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!

The Illinois Track and Field Club sent 5 women and 15 men to compete at the John Craft Invite in Charleston, Illinois this past weekend.

Last season, a common question asked about Emma Grimes was how many club records she was going to break at any given meet. After just racing twice before last Saturday, the Graduate student broke her own Indoor Mile record, running a 5:05.21, placing 3^rd in the meet. Grimes also placed 4^th overall in the 800m from the second heat with a 2:20.91.

Freshman Erin McKee ran a 5:30.24 in the mile at her debut on a college track. The women 3000m runners ran well under their seed times, with Sophomore Emma Burkhardt placing 12^th, running 11:10.51, and Senior Paige Oboikovitz placing 15^th, running 11:25.83. Graduate Student Erin Murphy (Yes, we sent 2 Emmas, 2 Erins, and a Paige) placed 14^th in both the 60m dash and the 200m dash and 12^th in the 400m dash.

On the Men’s side, Steven Decker ran an impressive 600m run. He zoomed through the first 200m in 24s, and battled to maintain his lead for the rest of the race, winning the third heat and placing 6^th overall with a time of 1:24.54. Decker was also part of 8^th place 4×400 team consisting of Jayme Roberts, Decker, Beau Barber, and Stav Caplan.

Senior Greg Netols took an uncontested lead 500m into the second heat of the mile and led for the remainder of the race, finishing 9^th overall at 4:25.11. Sophomore Jared Ripoli took second in that heat, good for 12^th overall at 4:29.02, and Freshman Jack O’Neil finished 15^th overall with a 4:33.19. Illinois Elite Zach Boehmke and Graduate Student Henry Wolf led the final heat of the mile, finishing at 4:38.55 and 4:41.30, respectively.

Freshman Michael Frintner ran well in the 3000m, within 2 seconds of Senior Joseph Zeller, running at 9:19.80 and 9:17.97 respectively.

Next weekend brings another big meet for ITC, as they travel to Illinois Wesleyan in the Titan Open.

Throughout the end of last semester and winter break, the Illinois Track Club participated in three meets: the GVSU Early Bird, the IWU First Chance, and the Illini Classic. Although there was a limited squad at each meet, 3 club records were broken/established!

In Allendale, Junior Lauren Jonen ran a Women’s Indoor club record of 26.7s in the 200m dash and 41.72s in the 300m dash. The next day at Bloomington, Senior Jayme Roberts ran a Men’s indoor 300 m record of 36.49s, placing him 3^rd overall in the meet. These performances show promise for the experienced sprinting core led by Coach Jack Skelton.

This Saturday at Eastern Illinois will mark the first meet for most members of the club, including distance/mid-distance groups that recently reached the podium in last year’s cross country NIRCA nationals.