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For years it has been only a topic of conversation, but last weekend it became a reality as the ITFC crew ran in our first ever outdoor home meet, Illinois Club Peaks! It proved to be quite a wet one to begin with, but that didn’t stop us from running a bunch of really fast times! Let’s take a look at how the team did.

The start of the day was where the worst of the weather was and what better way to start than with one of the most dangerous events to do in the rain, the 100/110m high hurdles! Ali Djokic joined Connor Murphy and Michael Jang as they battled it out to reach the communal finish line. Ali rounded out the .69 trifecta with another 18.69, running the same time as Nationals which was exactly one second faster than her time at Lindenwood. Connor was just off his Nationals finals qualifying time running 16.60 and Michael Jang ran a club PR of 17.12. Who needs rest? Connor definitely did not, immediately turning around and running the 100m right after in 11.78. He was joined by Jorge Chavez, who ran a PR of 12.44, Yemi Sonoiki, who ran his fastest time since 2014 at 11.65, Mateusz Lopez, who ran 11.42, and meet champ Alex Bienduga who ran 11.36. Both of those last two times are faster than any other 100m times run this year which is super awesome. On the ladies side, we saw Becky Haight run 12.96 and then Sonia Zhang who began her Día de Los PRs running 14.59.

Both of those ladies were seen racing again in the 200m towards the end of the day where Becky ran 26.25 and Sonia PR’d again running 30.56. The guy”s side of the 200m saw 3 guys under 23 seconds. Alex Bienduga continued his killer day running the fastest 200m time of anyone this season with a 22.67. Shortly behind him was Michael Jang who ran a half second club PR at 22.90, and then Garret Barch who ran a club PR of 22.93. Special shout out to Jorge Chavez who ran a half-second PR in the 200m with a time of 24.92.

In the 400m, Kevin Sager led the men running 50.30. He was followed by Garret Barch at 51.75 and Deteen Steven Kataba who ran a second faster than he did indoor with a time of 54.02. Following those guys was a battle of distance runners. Brian Griffin and Yoon Yoon were talking trash all morning in anticipation for this event and Brian took the W, running 55.97 while Yoon ran 56.64. On the women’s side, it was a Mid-D battle with Kaleigh Evans narrowly out-leaning Selena Wallace as the duo ran 64.38 and 64.39 respectively. In the hurdle version of the 400m, Robyn Ellerbrock only had herself to run against and still ran a very solid 73.62.

As we keep increasing the distance, we shift focus to the 800m. On the guy”s side, we saw Meet Coordinator and overall badass Sean ‘Big Sean’ Bruyere take a step away from his responsibilities to run his first race of the year running 2:15.19. Also in the event, there were club PRs from Zack Fishman, who ran 3 seconds faster than his previous best with a 2:05, and Tyler Splitt who ran 1:59.13. Only 1-hundredth away from his club PR, Keith Lee narrowly missed the 2-flat barrier running 2:00.11.

Shifting Focus to the 1500m, there were big PR”s from both the men and the women. We saw head coach Jared Ripoli lead the guys with a speedy 6-second PR running 4:12.44. He outkicked distance coach Ryan Somerfield who also ran a PR with a time of 4:14.38. We also saw 1500m debuts from Adam Bruyere and Evan Patel at 4:43.04 and 4:34.26 respectively. The ladies 1500m was quite the race as Emily Foley battled grad student Robyn Ellerbrock for the meet title. Emily ended up as champ running a 5 second PR with a time of 5:16.6. (Definitely something a coach should’ve called out during the post-meet team meeting!) Robyn came in just after her with a time of 5:18.8. Also in the 1500m, we saw a PR from Leah Ziolkowski (5:42.6) and the return of Erin McKee who hadn’t run a 1500m in two years as she ran a 5:24.2, and the return from injury of Emma Burkhardt who ran a speedy 5:25.7.

In the longest event of the day, the 5000m, there were a couple PR’s for the team. Meet champ Josh Feldman won with a time of 15:52, a 16-second PR. Also with PR’s on the day, Quinn Todzo (16:17), and Sean Frintner (18:18). There were also 5K debuts from Michael Gerkin (16:35), Cody Lund (16:44), and Rohit “Pool Party Rohit” Kumar (17:33). On the ladies side, Anneliese Schulz was just 2 seconds off of her club PR running 18:47.

Shifting gears into the field, Sonia Zhang jumped 9.84m in the Triple Jump. This was an event PR and was also the farthest triple jump by any gender at the meet! Tyler Dixon debuted in the Triple Jump in his final meet as an ITFC athlete jumping 9.55m. In the Long Jump, Connor Murphy shocked jumps coach Mateusz Lopez by out-jumping him with a leap of 6.18m, ahead of Mateusz’s club PR jump of 6.14. Those marks were enough for the 2nd and 3rd spot on the Top Performance list!

As the running and jumping events came to a close, the team unified around the throwing ring for the first time all year to watch our throwers dominate the field. In Shot Put, the Gecko, Thomas Nute, reigned as champ throwing 11.97m. Liam Nassib also threw a club PR of 10.89m. He doubled PR’s throwing 33.7m in the discus which was an incredible improvement from the beginning of the season. Nute also PR’d in discus throwing 29.05m. Greg McLain finally got a mark in discus throwing a PR of 26.93. Zach Sawackis had a big improvement on his Nationals discus mark with a throw of 26.07m. On the girls side, there were many massive throws. Obi Azie, Inga Augustaitis, and newcomer Ashley Cooney all had throws that are in the top 5 all-time. Obi threw 9.74, Inga threw 9.56, and Ashley threw 9.46. Inga went on to casually break the previous discus record with a throw of 28.24m.

For such bad weather, it turned out to be a pretty good day for the team. While this is the last full team meet, there will still be people competing through mid-May so keep an eye out for updates about their performances!

Teams from far and wide all came together in Bloomington, IN for NIRCA’s Track and Field National Championship (and half marathon). Let’s take a look at how our team did!

It was a strong day for most of the throwers, as PR’s were set and Club Records were blown away. Starting off with the men’s Shot Put, there were three NIRCA All-American’s with Thomas Nute getting 3rd overall with a throw of 12.30m, Sal Ruiz getting 7th overall with a throw of 11.53m, and Greg McLain getting 9th overall with a throw of 11.21m. Also with notable throws in the men’s shot, Zach Sawackis threw an outdoor PR of 8.90m and Connor Murphy threw way beyond his indoor mark with a 9.84m heave. On the women’s side, all the ladies made it onto the podium as All-American’s which is a very impressive feat for sure. Leading the group and breaking the outdoor shot put record by more than a meter, Obi Azie dominated all but one the field throwing 10.43m which landed her in the 2nd place spot. Following her was now former club record holder Tare Emuze who threw 9.10m, enough for 4th overall. Mid-distance/throwing hybrid Nayeli Lara was up next beating out her throw last week by almost a meter with a throw of 8.30m and good for 8th overall. Rounding out the group was their coach, Ali Djokic who took 9th with a throw of 7.11m. Onto Discus where on the men’s side, there was a clear champion. Paul Fina re-broke his own record by over 2 meters and absolutely dusted the field beating out 2nd place by 2 meters and 3rd by almost 8. On the women’s side, three of the women above retook the podium once again. This time Ali led the group throwing 26.04m, enough for 4th overall! Shortly following her was Obi who threw 25.10m, good for 5th overall. In 9th place was Nayeli, who threw 21.04m.

As always, it was a quite busy day for the sprinters as it seemed like they were just always racing. Becky Haight got to show off her insane speed getting the sprinter Triple Crown winning the 100m (12.65), 200m (25.99), and 400m (60.31). All three of those performances were outdoor PRs for Becky as she keeps climbing her way up the top performance lists. In the 4x100m, Becky was joined by Abby Ralph, Lauren Grant, and Sonia Zhang where the ladies took 5th with a time of 53.14. On guy’s side, our immense depth was really shown. In the 200m, Junior Mateusz Lopez led the group as the only All-American, running 22.89 in the prelims and securing 9th in the finals after an incredibly long day. Just outside of the finals spots but in the top 25, we had Kevin Sager at 11th (23.09), Sully Bazai at 12th (23.16), Garret Barch at 14th (23.19), Alex Bienduga at 19th (23.39), and Michael Jang at 24th (23.47). Later in the day, Kevin dominated his heat and the two heats while securing the 2nd overall spot in the 400m with a blazing time of 49.78, enough for a spot on the illustrious 400m top ten list. Also breaking 50 seconds, Sully took 3rd with a time of 49.94. Joining those two just outside the finals, Alex Bienduga got 11th running 51.21, and Mateusz Lopez got 14th running 51.51. On the following day, freshmen Garret, Kevin, and Alex were our three fastest in the 100m, narrowly missing finals by just hundredths coming in at 11th (11.54), 13th (11.58), and 14th (11.63) respectively. In the 4x100m, Mateusz, Alex, Kevin manage to rebound quickly after the open 400m as they joined Michael Jang to run 43.77. The B team was not far off as Sully and Garret joined Thomas Harris and Mason Rosenberg and ran 44.61.

In the hurdles, we got to see Coach Abby Ralph run 16.47 in prelims and end up with 5th place overall. Improving by exactly a second from last weekend, thrower/hurdler Ali Djokic ran 18.69. In his first hurdle race of the season, Connor Murphy secured a spot in finals running 16.50 and ended up 8th overall. In the 400m hurdles, Abby made it on the podium once again getting 7th overall. Continuing to tease the 60-second mark, Michael Jang ran 60.04 which got him 9th overall.

In the jumping events, all three girls in the Triple Jump, Robyn Ellerbrock, Abby Ralph, and Sonia Zhang made it to the podium as they reached 4th (10.13m), 6th (9.95m), and 8th (9.76m) respectively. Abby also sneaked in and scored one point in the Long Jump with her jump of 4.53m. Becky”s second time high jumping in a decade was enough for 6th place overall as she jumped 1.37m. On the men”s side, Coach Mateusz Lopez placed 2nd in the Triple Jump jumping 13.15m and Connor Murphy, the man who does everything, placed 8th in the High Jump with a leap of 1.67m.

Easily one of the hardest races on the track, the 3000m Steeplechase was an exciting event to watch this year. Newcomer Robyn Ellerbrock got to stretch her legs after a long time away from the track as she strided her way onto the podium getting 1st overall and a new club record of 11.36. Joining her was former club record holder Emily Foley who got 4th overall running 12:22. It was a big day for Josh Feldman on the guy”s side, who ran a 10 second PR to sneak his way onto the podium getting 9th overall with a time of 10:11. His coach, Ryan Somerfield, was close behind him running 10:20. Zach Mesplay ran a PR with a time of 10:28 and Quinn Todzo was just behind him running 10:42. Continuing with distance, we saw club PRs/debuts in the 1500m from Wiam Wolf (4:08.50), David Choi (4:14.03), Alex Hanskat (4:14.89), Eli Walker (4:16.08), Cody Lund (4:26.67), Leonel Rodriguez (4:24.55), Jarod Meyer (4:34.04), and Austin Kuehr (4:36.21). On the girl”s side, Anneliese Schulz ran a solid PR of 5:15.35, and Noel Brindise ran well in her first 1500m with a 5:37.12. Noel also ran well in the 5000m as she and Riley Maloney finished very close running 20:27 and 20:28 respectively.

Saving the coolest event group for last, we saw some great stuff from the Mid-D squad throughout the weekend. Starting out with the 4x800m relay, the women’s team of Selena Wallace, Emily Foley, Tiffany Yathaputanon, and Emily Condic broke 10 minutes and were just shy of the record running a 9:57. Emily Condic also ran very well in the 1500m where she ran a PR of 5:05, 10 seconds better than last week. Hannah Smith for some reason decided to run the 5000m and she ran a massive PR of 20:44. Sprinter/Mid-D runner Kaleigh Evans had the very brutal 400/800 double on day one where she ran a 64.38 and followed it up with 2:30.45. Shortly after her was Selena who ran 2:33.19, Hannah Behle who ran 2:37.90 and then Tiffany who ran 2:38.82. Shifting focus to the guys, the 4×800 B team of Cody Hansen, Mario Barenas, Beau Barber, and Zach Fishman ran well coming in at 8:43. The men’s A team of Keith Lee, distance runner Jason Golden, Sean McCarty, and Tyler Splitt ran fast enough to break the 8-minute barrier as well as take down the outdoor record with a time of 7:59.58! Sean McCarty followed up his speedy split in that with a speedy open 800m running 2:00.50. He was joined in that event by his coach Tyler Splitt who ran 1:59.18, as well as teammate Keith Lee who ran 2:01.73. In the 400m, Zach Fishman ran a club PR of 55.9.

The final event of the evening proved to be so cool it needed its own paragraph. The 4x400m relay was quite an exciting event yet again. Beginning with the girls, sprinters Becky Haight, Lauren Grant, and Abby Ralph were joined by Kaleigh Evans in the A team where they got 4th with a time of 4:15.01. The B team was made up of Selena Wallace, Tiffany Yathaputanon, Emily Condic, and Hannah Behle where they ran a time of 4:28 with the help of Selena’s speedy lead leg. We had 4 guys teams run and every single one won their heat which was awesome to see. The D team of John Brandenburg, Will Reyes, Cody Hansen, and Mario Barenas ran 3:53.68 to seal the deal in their heat. The C team of Beau Barber, Zach Fishman, Jason Golden, and Connor Murphy ran a time of 3:40.22 to win their heat. The B team of Keith Lee, Sean McCarty, Michael Jang, and Garret Barch kept up with the trend winning their heat with a time of 3:34.79. Last in the list but first in the meet, the men’s A team absolutely obliterated the competition in what has been called “the most exciting race of the year” by Beau. Kevin Sager, Alex Bienduga, Mateusz Lopez, and Tyler Splitt ran a blazing 3:18.47 which beat out 2nd by over 6 seconds. It shattered the meet record as well as the club record by that much as well.

With Nationals behind us, the team has shifted focus to our home meet Illinois Club Peaks which will be run on April 29th. Full results for the Nationals meet can be found in the Meet Results section of the Results page.”,2017-04-21 21:09:00+00,Outdoor
138,Taylor Spliff,ITFC Takes On D1 Elite at Illinois Twilight,”A troupe of varsity runners took to the track this weekend at the Illinois Twilight meet, and some of the ITFC athletes decided to take them on. Let’s take a look at how they did.

Our lone girl, Becky Haight, was set on showing the Varsity what they’ll be missing as she ran a speed 100m with a time of 12.67 and then followed it up with a record-breaking 200m of 25.32! You are insane Becky!

For the men, we had seven guys competing this weekend which is the most we’ve ever had. The men’s 4×100 team of Michael Jang, Garret Barch, Kevin Sager, and Mateusz Lopez started off the evening running 43.31. After that, Kevin and Mateusz joined Tyler Splitt and Alex Bienduga in the open 400m where we saw Mateusz break the elusive 50-second barrier, coming in at 49.91. Following him was Kevin, who ran 50.16, then Tyler who came in at 50.38, and then Alex at 51.05. Those four teamed up in the 4×400 where they battled three varsity teams and took them all down, taking 1st overall with a time of 3:20.71! Lone thrower Paul Fina also made an appearance throwing 39.04m in the discus, good for 4th on the top performances list.

Keep an eye out for all of those athletes and the many more talented people from the club team this weekend at the first annual Illinois Club Peaks!

This past weekend we got to see a lot of our team in their debut outdoor meets! The team traveled to the St. Louis area where we saw a couple of 5000m races at the WashU Invite on Friday, and the rest of the team competed on Saturday at the John Creer Invite at Lindenwood University. Let’s take a look at how they did.

First, on Friday night, a small group of distance folks made the trek out to St. Louis to all run in the 5000m. We got to see a couple of really solid PRs which is always awesome. Leading the group was Big Red, head coach Jared Ripoli, who had a big PR running over a minute faster than his previous best coming in at a slick 15:21. Following Jared, William ‘Wiam’ Wolf and David Choi each had PRs of their own coming in at 15:27 and 15:31, respectively. Leonel Rodriguez made his 5000m debut this weekend, running a 16:21. Rounding out the WashU CrU was the lone girl Anneliese Schulz who came in at 18:51.

The action continued on Saturday just 20 miles away (as the crow flies) at Lindenwood University. To begin the day, the men’s 4x100m dominated their heat and came away 3rd overall in the meet with a very impressive 43.28. Becky Haight continued to run fast, picking up right where she left off in indoor with a 60.43 in the 400m and a 26.26 in the 200m. Lauren Grant ran her first ever open 400m and significantly improved over her split times with a time of 65.38. After suffering a hamstring injury the week of Club Relays, Alex Bienduga made quite the return with a 400m of 51.39 and a 200m of 23.67. Joining him in the 200m, Mateusz Lopez ran a 23.51, Kevin Sager ran a 23.80, and Thomas Harris ran a 24.34. Michael Jang ran his first ever 400m hurdles race and debuted in a blazing fashion nearly breaking 60 with a 60.13! A bunch of excellent work on the sprints side and you should look out for some big performances this weekend!

In the longer events, we saw a lot of stellar performances. First, in the 1500m, Keith Lee ran the event for the first time and was just 55 hundredths away from his goal time by running 4:21.24. Shortly after him, Cody Lund came in at 4:26.67. On the girl”s side, Emily Condic exceeded her expectations and ran a 5:15.58! She continued her day in the 800m where she ran a 2:30.17. She was joined by Kaleigh Evans and Tiffany Yathaputanon who put up impressive times of 2:29.72 and 2:37.65 respectively! The guys 800 included a couple of PRs and great races with Muneeb Ansari running an almost 2 second PR of 2:17.65. Mario Barenas had an almost 5-second improvement from his indoor 800 and a 2.3 second PR with a 2:11.32. Cody Hansen also had an almost 5-second improvement from indoor running a 2:10.78. Zach Fishman improved on his indoor time by about 3 seconds running 2:08.01. Running in his first race since Nationals last year, Sean McCarty ran a ridiculous 800 of 2:03.96 where he negative split by 2 seconds! Both the men’s and women’s 3000m Steeplechase proved to be exciting as we saw Zach Mesplay debut in the event with an impressive time of 10:31.96. On the women’s side, Emily Foley decided she was tired of being our second fastest steeplechaser ever and went and broke the record by over 10 seconds running 12:06.91! Both steeplechasers look to improve on those times this weekend, so look out!

The throwing crew had quite the long day at the track this past weekend. Everyone had a chance to throw Shot Put, and after not being able to compete last year, Greg McClain had an awesome heave of 10.88m. He was joined by Thomas “The Gecko” Nute who threw 10.92m, Liam Nassib who threw 10.31m, and Zach Sawackis who threw 7.52m. Nayeli Lara and Obi Azie threw 9.21m and 7.33m respectively in the ladies ring. Then they all got to sit and relax for a few hours as the meet dragged on. Discus didn’t start until over 12 hours after they left the CU and the meet directors ended up canceling almost all of their flights due to darkness. Shout out to their coach, Ali Djokic, for persuading the officials to let them throw once so that they could have a mark in the event, a requirement to compete this weekend. Paul Fina, the only discus thrower whose flight wasn’t completely canceled (he still only got one throw), had a massive throw of 39.72m. Everyone else only got one throw with no warm-ups, but Ali said that they were very promising and she is looking forward to seeing them all throw in better conditions this weekend.

That’s all for the competition last weekend, but you have a lot to look forward to with NIRCA Track and Field Nationals is this weekend! It is our biggest meet of the year so keep an eye out for the slew of fabulous performances sure to come!”,2017-04-07 13:30:00+00,Outdoor

With most of the team on Spring Break, only a couple of our athletes came out to compete last weekend at the Rose-Hulman Early Bird meet. Let’s take a look at how they did.

The lone competing sprinter was veteran Oluwayemisi “Yemi” Sonoiki who ran in both the 100m and the 200m where he ran 11.81 and 24.16 respectively. After getting hit by an unfortunate hamstring injury very early on this year, Yemi said he was very happy to be able to compete at almost full strength now that outdoor is here and looks to improve in both of those events as the season goes on.

The distance side had three athletes competing in two events. Muneeb Ansari battled the wind in the 1500m and ran a time of 4:50.24. In the 3000m Steeplechase, Distance Coach Ryan Somerfield won the meet with a 10 second PR of 10:15.28 which puts him just 2 seconds off of the top ten list. Coming in shortly after him, Josh Feldman ran a 10:39.57 which he looks to improve upon at Nationals.

With Spring Break over, everyone is shifting gears towards Nationals which will be on April 8th and 9th in Bloomington, Indiana. Before that, the team will be sending many athletes to Washington University and Lindenwood University this weekend (March 31st and April 1st) so that should hopefully be able to tide you over until Nats!”,2017-03-28 00:01:00+00,Outdoor

For the 9th year in a row, we walked away as champions of the best indoor meet of the year! There were a ton an action packed races this weekend, and it made for quite an exciting meet!

Let’s get started by taking a look at the throwers. With almost everyone throwing either season’s bests or PRs, the throwers had an amazing day. All five girls that competed swept the top 5 Shot Put places with Obioma Azie getting first with a throw of 9.81m followed closely by Inga Augustaitis who threw 9.79m. Tare Emuze, Nayeli Lara, and Coach Ali Djokic rounded out the top 5 with throws of 9.26m, 8.14m, and 7.69m respectively. The guys also walked away as champions of the ring with Thomas Nute leading the group with a massive PR of 12.66m. Salvador Ruiz was second in the group as he also threw a PR with a 12.24m heave. They were 3rd and 5th individually but together were the best duo out there getting 1st for our team. We should all be very pumped to see how the throwers continue to perform as we move into the outdoor season with the added excitement of discus!

Sticking with the F part of ITFC, it’s time to shift focus to the pits. Sonia Zhang and Abby Ralph hop-skip-and-jumped their way to 2nd in the Triple Jump with leaps of 9.79m and 9.78m respectively. Becky Haight joined Abby in the Long Jump where Becky got 1st and Abby 4th to win first overall. The duo switched from going sideways to upward in the High Jump where they were joined by Kassie Kushner. All three marked in an event that none of them compete in regularly with Becky jumping the highest at 4’7. On the guy”s side of the high jump pit, Hameed Odunowhere-he-came-from managed a jump of 6”1 to get 1st overall. Some people didn”t think it was possible, but sprints coach Mike Kreiser was seen RUNNING at the meet! He dusted off his old uniform and high jumped 5”1 to be the second scoring jumper. Hameed joined Yemi Sonoiki in the triple jump where they managed a 3rd place team finish despite barely having time to practice the event. Hameed leaped 11.34m and Yemi made it 11.39m. In the long jump, Mason Rosenberg had a club PR going 5.94 m. All-in-all very impressive from the jumpers especially considering a lot of them were jumping unfamiliar events and knew they needed to do well.

On to the track beginning with the distance events. In the grueling 3000 m, Anneliese Schulz had another solid showing coming in 7th with a time of 11:03. After injury-laden indoor season thus far, Emma Burkhardt powered through the pain and ended up getting 11th with a time 11:22, which was enough for 4th place for the team. Also in the 3K, Audrey Vandercar PR’d by almost 20 seconds coming in at 11:46! On the men’s side, we had a couple of nice performances and came away with a 4th place finish. Wiam Wolf led the group of guys coming in at 8:56, followed by Alex Lindsay who ran a 9:02. On to the Mile, we saw a lot of fast performances. Eli Walker raced well and won his heat with a time of 4:33. Shortly after him, Mackenzie “Big Mac” Bach made his club track debut running a 4:35 in the same heat. Coach Ryan Somerfield and Justin Shim rounded out the scoring crew with times of 4:29 and 4:38 respectively. The girls came away as champions in the Mile with a bunch of really awesome performances. The Mid-D girls proved to be a force to be reckoned with as Emily Condic, Erin McKee, and Emily Foley were all in the scoring group. Both Emily’s ran PR’s with Condic running a 5:36 and Foley running a 5:46. Erin McKee showed off her heart of a lion as she ran a blazing last lap to finish at 5:39. Snug in the middle of those girls, Anneliese finished up an amazing double after her 3K earlier by running a 5:40. Special shout out to Riley Maloney for running a nearly 30 second PR with a 6:03 and Noel Brindise for breaking the 6-minute mark in the mile! Great job all around for the 3K and Mile runners!

Switching gears to the short stuff, we saw some great performances from the hurdling men with Michael Jang breaking 9.00 once again with an 8.99 and Joseph Bleyer who PR’d with a time of 9.01, placing 1st overall as a team. Becky Haight decided the fastest wasn’t fast enough and broke her own record in the 60m with a time of 8.12 which landed her 1st overall. In the 60m hurdles, Abby Ralph got 2nd with a time of 9.82 which was just hundredths off of her record as she now has all 10 of the top 10 performances. How many times am I going to mention Becky and Abby? Probably a lot due to Becky’s six and Abby’s seven events they scored in this weekend.

We move on to the meet”s namesake, the relay events! In the 4×800, the men’s team of Keith Lee, Alex Hanskat, Jason Golden, and Tyler Splitt placed 3rd with a time of 8:06 and the women’s team of Emily Foley, Tiffany Yathaputanomglongestnameever, Erin Mckee, and Emily Condic placed 4th with a time of 10:31. The 4×200 was fast on both sides as the girl”s squad of Becky Haight, Kassie Kushner, Lauren Grant, and Abby Ralph narrowly took second with a time of 1:52.47. The guy”s team of Mason Rosenberg, Kevin Sager, Sully Bazai, and Mateusz Lopez won the meet and broke the meet record with a time of 1:33.01. Not only did the men have the 1st place 4×200, but they also had the 4th place team with Michael Jang, Connor Murphy, Deteen Kataba, and Garret Barch running just 1.3 seconds slower at 1:34.30. Both the guys and the girls Sprint Medley Relays took 2nd in the meet. The girl”s team was composed of Becky, Abby, Kaleigh Evans, and Selena Wallace and they ran 4:33.13. They guys team consisted of Mason, Kevin, Sully, and Tyler and they ran a time of 3:39.96.

The meet ended with some excitement in the final event of the day, the 4×400. The girl”s team of Becky, Abby, Lauren, and Kaleigh battled their way to a 2nd place finish with a time of 4:22.13. The guy”s side was where things got interesting as injuries caused the A and B teams to combine. Kevin, Mateusz, Sully, and Tyler ran alone from the B relays heat and ran a 3:23.28 which was almost 7 seconds faster than any other team and the fastest indoor 4×400 the club has ever seen by 2.8 seconds! Special shout out to Keith Lee, Michael Jang, and Deteen Kataba for getting bumped out of their 4×400 teams due to the last second change. It was such an exciting end to an even more exciting meet!

The conclusion of Club Relays marked the conclusion of our indoor season but is far from the end of this year in track. Make sure you stay tuned as ITFC shifts gears to outdoor and looks to take on the rest of the clubs at NIRCA Nationals on April 8th and 9th!”,2017-03-09 01:58:00+00,Indoor

After a long weekend of traveling, let’s take a look at what went down.

The 300m track at GVSU proved to be as fast as it is known for with PRs from almost everyone who went. Becky started her day with a top five 400m performance at 60.14 and ended it by clobbering the 200m record with a time of 26.18! Alex Bienduga continued his rampant PR streak by dropping almost another second in his 400 with a 51.59. He joined other sprinters Mateusz Lopez and Mason Rosenberg in the 200 where the trio all ran club PR’s with Mateusz coming in at 23.21, Mason at 23.28, and Alex at 23.36. In the 3000 m at GVSU, Anneliese Schulz ran a smart race that resulted in a solid PR of 11:00.99. The guy”s side of the 3K also had a PR with David Choi running a 9:01. They were both so close to going under 11 and 9 minutes respectively but both look to be breaking those barriers in the upcoming Club Relays meet.

There were three incredibly close races this weekend that made for some exciting finishes. First, in the 800, there was a heated battle between sophomore by credit Jason Golden and “Coach” Keith Lee where the duo was less than a half-second apart, coming in at 2:01.40 and 2:01.83. In an even closer race, distance coach Ryan Somerfield narrowly outkicked Wiam Wolf in the mile with the two of them finishing at 4:26.12 and 4:26.14 respectively. Somehow, all the way over in Indiana, two club first years finished just one one-hundredth apart in the closest race of the year so far. Postdoc Alex Lindsay wasn’t about to let the bearded freshman Eli Walker beat him and, unfortunately for Eli, the beard wasn’t enough as Alex beat him by a hair striding through at a 4:33.64 with Eli finishing at a 4:33.65. Also in the Mile, we saw club PRs from Brian Griffin who ran a 4:41.90 and Justin Shim who ran 4:43.94. Emily Condic made her track debut coming through at a 5:40.24 and is still recovering from an injury so make sure you look out for her races in the future!

There were multiple other exciting performances at Taylor, including the return of Jesus Suleman ‘Sully’ Bazai who improved on his Early Bird time in the 200 coming in at 23.28, the same time as Mason a state over. In the 800, Tiffany Yathaputanon ended up crushing her club PR and ran a 2:37.9. In the ring, we saw the debut of sprinter Connor Murphy throwing shot put for the first time leading our group with a nice throw 9.24 m. Obi Azie led the girls with a throw of 9.64 m. Debuting in the hurdles, Joseph Bleyer landed himself on the top 10 list with a speedy time of 9.07 which puts him just behind veteran hurdler Michael Jang. Make sure you guys come out to watch both of those guys and their coach Abby Ralph this weekend at the Orange & Blue meet in the Armory! (And if you stay a bit longer you can watch me run too)

Looking onward to the next weekend, we have our biggest race of the indoor season. Club Relays is our indoor home meet and is an incredibly exciting meet at that. For more information, check out the Club Relays page!

With two more meets behind us, let’s take a look at what went down.

There were debuts all over the squad and many amazing ones at that. On the sprints side, Alex Bienduga made his first two appearances in a blazing fashion by posting the second and third fastest 400 times run by the club so far this year (53.21 and then 52.52) as well as running a very solid 23.59 in the 200 at the ONU Invite. Mason Rosenberg continued to show his speed leading the group in the 200 with a time of 23.46 at the IWU Titan Open. He also made his debut in the long jump posting a top 10 jump of 5.87m. Along with him, Sonia Zhang triple jumped for the first time and blasted her way onto the number 6 spot in the top 10’s list with a jump of 9.80m. Their coach, Mateusz Lopez, also put up his second best ever long jump at 6.06m and a 51.99 in the 400. Veteran sprinter Becky Haight, after already getting the 60m record earlier this year, continues to knock on the door of multiple records. She is now hundredths away from the record in both the 200m (26.44 at EIU) and the long jump after her 4.98 m leap at IWU. Hurdler Michael Jang ran sub-9 again in the 60m Hurdles at IWU and also posted a club personal best of 24.06 in the 200m at ONU and hopes to continue to remain injury free this season.

The troop of first-year throwers continues to drop far marks as they look to put up big numbers in the coming weeks. Inga Augustaitis made her shot put debut and looks to be very competitive in the women’s throws this year.

Mid-distance had a couple big returns in the past two meets with Erin McKee joining us after a semester abroad, and Ryne Beeson returning after 8 long years in hibernation. Erin joined other mid-d girls Tiffany Yathaputanon and Emily Foley in the 800 as they all posted times within seconds of each other right at the 2:40 mark. Emily also made an appearance at ONU where she took to the mile and ran a 5:49. Ryne shook the dust off his legs and put his walker aside as he ran a very solid 800 (2:07) and mile (4:40). Another mid-d debut came from Jason Golden who ran a 2:03 in the 800 at IWU. Hannah Smith ran an awesome 3000m where she absolutely dusted her heat and came in with a PR of 11:53. (I know, I know.. The 3K is not a mid-distance event. I get it)

Distance finally came out the woodwork with a fury of milers and 3000m runners. With the track debuts of Jarod Meyer, Evan Patel, and Cody Lund, the mile was insanely exciting. Leading the bunch was freshman Alex Hanskat battling the whole way to post an awesome time of 4:40.87. He was followed in by Cody (4:45), Evan (4:51), and Jarod (4:52) which was an awesome race to watch. The 3000m was literally packed with our squad (check out this picture: Men”s 3000M) and boy did they show up. There were club PRs from Wiam Wolf (8:55), Josh Feldman (9:00), distance coach Ryan Somerfield (9:05), Alex Lindsay in his debut (9:08), and Leonel Rodriguez (who PR’d by almost 30 seconds with a 9:32) all from the meet at IWU. The following weekend at ONU, freshman Zach Mesplay was the lone ITC runner in his debut race, the 3000m, where he ran a 9:21. He was joined by Riley Maloney who had a lifetime PR of 6:33 in the mile but looks to keep improving on that time as she gets more opportunities to race.

There were a ton of exciting performances from these meets and there is still so much more to come! With groups going to GVSU and Taylor University this weekend, you better get pumped for some great times! Most of the squad will be heading to Taylor University to go head to head with some of Indiana’s best track athletes including Indiana’s club team. The rest of the group will be making the trek out to Allendale, MI in our only overnight meet of the indoor season. GVSU houses an extremely fast 300m track in the icy tundra that is Michigan. Known for being the site of the many of our records, including both the men’s and women’s 200m and 400m as well as the women’s 3000m, it will definitely be a fast one. With almost 50 people set to compete, it should be the biggest weekend yet!”,2017-02-09 00:05:00+00,Indoor

With this being the first post on the new site, I’d like to say welcome! The rest of the ITC Web Development team and I have worked very hard making this new site what it is. That being said, it is still a work in progress. If anything seems wrong or you want to suggest an improvement, please don’t hesitate to contact me at illinoistfclub+webmaster@gmail.com! That goes for anything related to your results on the site, as well as any other pages or features. As the webmaster, I can be your contact for that kind of stuff throughout the year. Along with the slick new site, we have a lot to be excited about this year! A couple of the coaches had some words to say about this upcoming 2017 season.

On the distance side, Coach Ryan Somerfield is very excited to see his runners perform this year, specifically seniors Sean Bruyere, Emma Burkhart, and Jared Ripoli who he hopes overcome their injuries and cap off their club racing careers with a solid last season. He’s looking for all of the freshmen to come into their own on the club and he’s hoping runners Muneeb Ansari, Noel Brindise, and Megan Frintner can break their respective barriers in the mile (Muneeb – 5:00, Noel and Megan – 6:00).

Sprints coach Mike Kreiser had the following to say about his crew: “On the women’s side, Becky Haight looks to break every single record in the history of ITC. Already knocked down the 60m record at the early bird meet and is on the heels of the 200m record. Lone senior Abby Ralph looks to continue her dynamic athletic ability, taking on a workload of sprints, jumps, and hurdles. Along with those girls, a class of newcomers looks to show us what they got this season. A deep field of newcomers looks to revitalize the men’s program. Veteran Mateusz Lopez leads in jumps while continuing to impress in the 200m and 400m. Newcomers Kevin Sager and Mason Rosenberg look to make their mark across the sprints program as well. Veteran Michael Jang continues to move toward the 60m HH record. Our deep roster should be very nice to have during the 2017 season”.

In the pits, Coach Mateusz Lopez is looking to have all of his jumpers improve in every meet through hard work and proper practice. He has high expectations but knows that his athletes can live up to them and more.

Throws coach Ali Djokic chimed in as well with the following: “In the realm of throws, I’m very excited to see what our new team can accomplish this season. Our crew has over doubled since last year and that has come from a talented new freshman class. On the women’s side, Carah Cole came out to her first collegiate meet in December and shattered our previous indoor shot put record. Inga Augustaitis premiered this past weekend and follows close in Carah’s footsteps so I hope to see those two progress together. For the men, a new trio to look out for this season consists of Sal Ruiz, Liam Nassib, and Thomas Nute. It’s great to see them push one another to get better at both practice and meets. We have a new junior member, Paul Fina, who will be throwing javelin this year. Be sure to watch for him through our outdoor season! We are a very young team but have senior Tare Emuze finishing her senior year and I feel she is going to leave an already larger impact on the club than years before and will be a legacy to follow. I am excited to see this passionate group kill it this season. “

I’ll end with my group as the mid-distance coach. I’m really happy with my crew this year and I think they will all have awesome seasons. We have a lot of veterans, which means we have a good group of solid leaders. I look forward to seeing them all achieve their goals and avoid the injuries that have plagued some of them in the past. I hope my girls continue to stick together and improve as they do so and I anticipate a lot of success from my newcomers as well. I’m excited to see all of the work that the whole team has put in to come to fruition in the form a really great season for everyone.

Stay tuned for more coverage of ITC”s season, and more website improvements as well! We should all look forward to this fun and successful season!

The Illinois Cross Country Club competed at the NIRCA National Cross Country Championships on November 12 in Hershey, PA. It was a successful day for the club across six races in the biggest club national championship yet. In the championship race, the men finished fourth and the women finished ninth. The day was also highlighted by incredible efforts in the open races: Quinn Todzo was the national champion in the Junior/Senior/Grad division and Grayson Stout was the runner-up; Leonel Rodriguez ran a heroic race to finish as the runner-up in the Freshman/Sophomore division.

Junior/Senior/Grad

The day started off with a bang. The man, the myth, the legend Quinn “Jackhammer” Todzo toed the line looking for the win and he executed perfectly. Quinn was hyped out of his mind in an expletive-laden pre-race huddle and that fiery intensity burned through the entire race. After seasons of grinding away, Quinn took home the victory on Saturday morning with a 27:27.

Just behind the Dancellor came another incredible performance from IXC as senior Grayson Stout took second in the race. Grayson joined the club team late this fall and ran his first race of the season at Regionals. He tore his ACL in 2015 and his performance at Nationals means #thereturn is complete as he broke through with a 27:36, more than 10 seconds ahead of third place.

The club has always prided itself on its strength in the open race, and Saturday was no exception. The men’s team won handily over Penn State, 36-50. Junior Jack O’Neil was sixth overall and senior Tyler Dixon was tenth in his final cross country race. Tyler loved the brutally tough Hershey course in 2013 and he made the most of his return to Pennsylvania. Also making his return to Hershey, senior Jack Morrissey was the fifth man.

Junior Austin Kuehr finished sixth for the team and senior Sean “SMB” Bruyere finished seventh. Big Sean ran his best race of college his freshman year in Hershey, finishing sixth overall in the men’s open race and he ends his cross country career as the team’s seventh man in Hershey.

In the women’s race, junior Vicky Dent surged throughout the 6K course to finish first for the women and claim tenth place overall. Senior Hannah Smith, the only Hershey veteran for IXC in the race, finished next, in thirteenth and senior Ellie Palacios capped off her XC career with a 22^nd place finish in Hershey. One of the biggest jumps from last season came from Mariela Marquez. Last year in Kentucky, she ran 29:15 at Nationals. This year, on a much more challenging course, Mariela ran 27:32 as the team’s fourth runner. Junior Megan Frintner rounded out the scoring five.

Championship

The men’s championship race was highlighted by some experienced veterans on one last ride and going out with a bang. The men’s team finished fourth, behind dominating efforts by Oregon, UC-Davis and Penn State. It was an improvement of eight places from last year and the team crushed Great Plains foe Iowa State, who edged IXC at Regionals.

Senior Jared “Big Red” Ripoli was the team’s top finisher, reestablishing himself as the team’s top dog. Jared became the first IXC athlete ever to run in the championship race all four years of competition. He earned his second NIRCA All-American honor with a 19^th place finish in 26:29. He ran 27:31 in Hershey at Nationals in 2013.

The team’s second runner broke out at Nationals last season and has been on a roll ever since. Josh Feldman claimed NIRCA All-American honors with a 23^rd place finish. He’s a key part of the club’s young talent after steady top finishes through the entire 2016 campaign. Senior head coach Ryan Somerfield was the team’s third man in a stellar effort. Ryan worked his way up the entire race aiming to run a race to be proud of. He used a strong kick to finish 36^th in his strongest performance of the season.

Sophomore Willy Wolf was fourth for the team and senior David Choi was fifth in his return to Hershey with a 27:13. He ran 29:48 his freshman year. Junior Michael Frintner finished sixth for the team and freshman Zach Mesplay was seventh.

In the women’s race, the team was once again led by the triple threat of sophomore Anneliese Schulz, senior Emma Burkhardt and freshman Emily Condic. The women finished in ninth place overall. Anneliese led the charge for the women with a 23:50 NIRCA All-American performance good for 23^rd place. Emma and Emily both finished exactly at 24:18, with Emma taking 44^th and Emily taking 45^th overall.

Junior Erin McKee capped a strong return from overseas in her return to the championship race, finishing as the women’s fourth runner. Sophomores Sara Folliard and Jill Monier have run well at every meet she’s competed at this season, and they finished as the fifth and sixth women, respectively, in Hershey.

Freshman/Sophomore

The open races were split by class for the first time at Nationals this year, giving the underclassmen an opportunity to shine. Sophomore Leonel Rodriguez seized the spotlight with a courageous effort to finish as the runner-up in the Frosh/Soph race. Leonel has been battling respiratory illness all season, but he faced down his demons with an incredible race. He lurked in the front pack for most of the race and took the lead with about 1K to go. He was caught by Penn State’s Andrew Hanna, but Leonel exerted himself to the fullest to finish a challenging season.

Sophomore Justin Shim, with the cheers of his father behind him, was second for the team and twelfth overall. He was followed closely by fellow sophomore Adam Bruyere in fourteenth. Freshman Cody Lund had a stellar effort to finish in 28:49. Cody broke his season goal in the very first meet, and capped off his first campaign with the club in 16^th place.

In a tenacious effort, sophomore Arturo Woodward-Montes rounded out the team’s scoring five. Injury made Arturo question whether he would even compete at Nationals, but he gritted it out and moved up through the entire race for a strong showing. Freshman Sean “Crunchy” Frintner also gritted out a solid race while tweaking his leg during the race. Little Sean finished as the team’s sixth man and fellow freshman Rohit “Pool Party” Kumar was seventh.  Freshman Jacob Anderson also had a phenomenal last race of the season, finishing in 31:31. He ran his best time of the season at Hershey, the toughest course of the season.

For the women, a small but strong squad represented in the Freshman/Sophomore race. Freshman Leah Ziolkowski led the way with a 27:33 finish, sophomore Adriana Miltko ran a tough race, including a fall, to finish as the women”s second runner. Freshman Callie Rukavina was the third finisher for the women.

It was the team’s third trip to Hershey and the first since 2013. It was a day full of highlights for IXC and a fantastic finish to an awesome season. The trip would not have been possible without the help of parent volunteers to drive our vans to Nationals. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy/Mom and Dad, Mr. and Mrs. Frintner, Mr. and Mrs. Folliard, Mr. Feldman, Mr. and Mrs. Condic, and Mr. Yoon.

Thank you for your support the entire 2016 cross country season! Keep checking illinoistrackclub.com for updates as the team moves into track season, starting with the Illinois Wesleyan Titan First Chance Meet on December 3.

The Illinois Cross Country Club started the post-season with success at the NIRCA Great Plains Regional Championships in Ames, Iowa. The women won their sixth-straight regional championship and the men finished in second, two points out of first place. Seven athletes earned all-Regional honors as the club ran its final race before Nationals.

The women went off first at Iowa State. The women were once again led by the triumvirate of Anneliese Schulz, Emily Condic and Emma Burkhardt. After missing the team’s last outing at UW-Parkside, Anneliese and Emma were right back at full strength for a solid showing. All three women garnered all-Regional honors- Anneliese led the charge in sixth place, clocking a 24:21. Emily and Emma were within five seconds behind, taking seventh and eighth.

Senior Allison Gibson has progressed into a top-seven stalwart through of her club running career, and she narrowly missed top-ten all-Regional honors in Ames by just three tenths of a second. Coming off a strong race at UW-Parkside, sophomore Sara Folliard had another great performance to round out the team’s scoring five. High school teammates Erin McKee and Jill Monier finished sixth and seventh for the team. Senior Mariela Marquez also demonstrated a marked improvement from last year, improving nearly twenty places from last year’s Regional meet.

Once again, no other Great Plains team could match the women’s depth. The women have won the Regional Championship every time it has been contested. They won convincingly in Ames, taking down second place Wisconsin by a score of 46-64.

The men also put on a strong performance in their runner-up finish. The top four finishers for IXC went 5-6-7-8 to all garner all-Regional honors with just a 15 second split. Auburn Jimenez was first for the men in his second race of the season. Sophomore Willy Wolf was next through the chute for IXC. He’s finished first or second for the team in every meet this season. Senior Jared Ripoli came in third for the team, earning his third career all-Regional medal in his best-ever finish at Regionals, and sophomore Josh Feldman finished fourth. Head coach Ryan Somerfield and senior David Choi were fifth and sixth.

Freshman Mackenzie Bach ran his strongest race of the season to finish as the team’s seventh man. Mackenzie has steadily improved all season and had a breakthrough race at Iowa State’s challenging course. He’s the second freshman to finish in the men’s top seven this season.

Saturday also marked a remarkable club debut for a senior running his first race. Grayson Stout joined the club late this fall but he had a stellar race toeing the line for the first time since 2013. Grayson tore his ACL in 2015 and came out in Ames with a quick 28:04 #thereturn.  Another senior also made his season debut at Regionals, Jack Morrissey ran a respectable 28:54 to start his season, despite forgetting his trainers in Champaign.

For the past three years, IXC hosted the Great Plains Regional. This year marked the first time since 2012 that Iowa State has hosted the meet on their home course. It was a challenging course divided between an Iowa-flat start and finish and brutal hills criss-crossing through the ISU Arboretum.

Regionals is the club’s final meet before the NIRCA National Championships on November 12. The team will travel to Hershey, PA to compete against clubs from all over the country for the grand finale of the club cross country season.