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Last weekend, the Illinois Track Club traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to participate in the two day Washington University Invitational outdoor track meet.

Friday night featured both men’s and women’s distance races under the lights. Greg Netols led a strong 5000m squad, finishing in 15:13.95, while Brendan McDonnell set the first club record of the weekend, taking 6th place (31:19.01) in the 10000m. Turning to the women’s 5000m, Michelle Turner ran 19:28.61, a 34 second personel record, while in the 10000m, Kerry Devitt ran 38:48.75 as the sole ITC entrant in the event.

Despite inclement weather on Saturday, a number of club records were set. In the steeplechase, Monica O’Connor, Lauren Choi and Heather Guetterman all surpassed the previous club record in the event, with Monica leading the way in a time of 12:42.34. The 4x100m team annihilated the previous club record by over a second, finishing in 9th with a time of 51.32. Katharina Rains just missed her own club record, jumping 1.53m in the high jump, while the 4x400m team was only 0.02 seconds off the club record, running 4:11.04 to take 5th place.

On the men’s side, Chris DeSilva finished 6th in the steeplechase in a new club record of 9:49.29, while the men’s 4x100m team ran a club record of 43.01 to finish 9th. Jack Skelton ran 0:48.90 to finish in 3rd place in the 400m, while Andrew Cholewa ran 0:58.38 to finish in 7th place in the 400m hurdles, both less then a half-a-second off club records. Ryan Jorgensen ran the top time for the team in the 1500m taking 3rd place (4:02.89).

In summary, it was a great weekend for races, with many more strong performances by the Illinois Track Club!

Help support the Illinois Track Club on Monday February 25th! We will be working with silver mine subs. A portion of every purchase will be donated to our club! All you have to do is give them one of these tickets.

Thanks for your help!

It was an evening filled with record setting performances this past Friday night, as the Illinois Track Club traveled to Eastern Illinois for the EIU Friday Night Special meet. A total of 6 club records were set: 4 for the women, 2 for the men.

In the women’s 400m both Caitlin Blalock and Lauren Jonen surpassed the club record, recording times of 1:03.38 and 1:03.71 respectively. They then teamed up with Erin Murphy and Lauren Henderson in the 4x400m, bettering the club record by over 6 seconds in a time of 4:16.21. Kaleigh Evans ran 1:43.92 setting a new record in the 600m.

Other performances of note include a 4th place finish in the mile by Megan McGreal (5:25.36) and a 5th place finish in the 800m by Thea Cudnowski (2:28.47). Megan Mocogni, Michelle Turner, and Paige Oboikovitz finished within 3 seconds of each other in the mile, while Monica O’Connor and Beth McGreal raced well in the 3000m.

For the field events, Erin Murphy surpassed the club record in the triple jump with a new personal best of 9.72m. Minyona Mason as well set a new personal best in the shot put, with a throw of 6.77m.

On the men’s side Ryan Jorgensen broke a historic record, surpassing Mark Talbot’s 1000m club record of 2:37.97, with a time of 2:32.77 capturing 1st place. Greg Netols had the top finish for the team in the mile, finishing in 4:30.85, while Brendan McDonnell and Andrew Gazdziak ran 9:04.66, and 9:05.26 respectively in the 3000m. Not too be outdone by his brother, Kevin Jorgensen would run 1:59.79 in the 800m. In the 5000m, Alex Harrison finished in 16:23.27.

For the third time this season the 60m dash record was broken; Fuad Akinbiyi reclaimed the record with a time of 7.11. Andrew Cholewa had the top time for the team in the 400m, running a personal best of 53.60, followed closely by Ryan Brewster in 53.72. Other top sprint times included Matt Halberthal (23.45) and Moobie Salami (23.91) in the 200m and Ben Kanevsky (54.37) and Jeremy Wood (54.92) in the 400m dash.

Illinois Track Club will host the Illinois Club Relays in the U of I Armory this Saturday, their final indoor race of the season.

Indoor track season is in full swing, as the Illinois Track Club recorded a number of strong performances this past weekend at the Illinois Wesleyan University Titan Open. The ITC men’s team finished seventh with 18 points, while the women’s team also captured seventh place, with 9 points.

The day would begin with a dominating performance in the men’s DMR, as the two relay teams entered would finish 1st and 2nd place. The ‘A’ relay team would lead wire to wire, with the ‘B’ team moving into second on a 4:35 1600m anchor leg by Eric De Guevara. Ryan Jorgensen, who was the lead off runner for the ‘A’ DMR team, would return later that day to finish 4th in the 800m, in a time of 1:58.91. Other highlights in the distance events included a personal best of 9:16.14 by Chris Valicka, and a display of pack running in the mile, as Andrew Gazdziak, Henry Wolf, and Joe Zeller would finish within four seconds of each other.

Not to be outdone, the sprinters had an equally impressive showing, having six entrants in the 60m dash (Kyle Sanders, Matt Halberthal, Fuad Akinbiyi, Jayme Roberts, Oluwayemisi Sonoiki, and Max Methling). Kyle Sanders and Matt Halberthal would advance to the finals in the 60m dash, where Halberthal would break the club record by 0.01 seconds, in a time of 7.12. This group would return later to run the 200m, joined by Will Stein. Ben Kanevsky, Andrew Cholewa and Scott Luedtke would add a trio of fast times in the 400m.

Moving to the field events, Manny Del Rio recorded a jump of 5.54 meters in the long jump, while Scott Luedtke jumped 11.27 meters in the triple jump. It was a great day for the Illinois throws squad, as ITC sent the largest throws team in the club’s history. Chad Bobbit threw 13.12 meters (only .03 off the club record) in the shot put, good enough for fourth place. Mark Pszczolkowski, Matt Kmet, and Tyler Kamp also turned in strong marks in the shot put.

Turning to the women, Minyona Mason would throw 6.24m in the shot put, the first event of the day. Grace Hucek ran an inspiring race, in her first running competition in over a year, taking 4th overall in the 800m race from the second heat in a time of 2:29.95. Meanwhile, in her first collegiate indoor track race, Beth McGreal ran a time of 5:39.92 in the mile, finishing sixth.

In the 400m dash, Caitlin Blalock would have the top finish in 1:03.78 (only 0.01 seconds off the club record), good enough for 9th overall. She would return with fellow 400m runners Lauren Jonen, Cassie Arenz, and Lauren Henderson to run the 4x400m relay, finishing 4th in a time of 4:25.02.

Megan Mocogni led the way for the distance squad, finishing in 11:26.00 in the 3000m, with Monica O’Connor only fractions of a second behind, in 11:26.11, out of the second heat.

All in all, it was a great day of indoor track and field, with plenty of other great results from ITC athletes. Full results will be posted in the Results section of the website.

What a season!

Our season was capped off with a trip to Hershey, PA for the NIRCA Nationals race. As a team our men placed 4th and our women placed 7th.

We would like to give a big thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout the year, but especially to the parents! Parents donated time, money, and baked goods to our club throughout the year. At every meet, from Chicago to Hershey, we had you guys supporting us. Thank you! We could not have done it without you.

Welcome to the season! We will have our first practice of the year at 4:15 tomorrow afternoon. We will then have a short track meeting following XC practice at 5:30. Both meetings will take place at the west entrance of the Armory. We hope to see everyone there!

Welcome all past, present, and future members of the Illinois track club! If you are interested in competing with us in the fall, please contact our new president Zach Boehmke at boehmke1@gmail.com. Men generally run an 8km, while women run 4km, 5km, and 6km races.

Don”t know what mileage level you should be at? Just shoot our cross country coach Mark Hayes an email and he will get you set up.

Are you a track athlete? We meet and train in the fall and winter as well! Please contact Zach Boehmke and let him know what events you would like to participate in. He will put you in contact with the appropriate event coach.

The race schedule is still to be determined, please check back later in the summer.

Have a great summer!

Both the men and women took first place this past weekend at the NCTFA Nationals. Congratulations! There were many outstanding performances.

Also a big thanks goes out to the parents who supported us by being at the meet, taking photos for us, and those who helped us fund raise for the trip. We could not have done it without you!

Two weekends ago, the middle-distance and sprints core traveled out to Oxford, Ohio to find some stellar competition at the Miami Invitational. They certainly got what they were looking for and more as several of our ITC athletes had stellar days of competition.

Starting with the sprints crew, Lizzie Gauen had a good day of racing, doubling a 28.49 200 with a 1:04.20 400. Both are solid efforts from the young sprinter. On the men”s side, both Matt Halberthal and Fuad Akinbiyi did the same double, Matt running 11.23/23.28 and Fuad 11.52/23.50. Those are some good middle of the season times for the younger members of our sprint crew and we are very excited to see how they progress heading into Nationals. The time from Matt is a seasonal best and also heads the NCTFA 100 meters list. In the 400, Jack Skelton broke 50 yet again, going 49.88, which is another solid effort from our sprints coach.

Moving up the distances, our middle-distance team ran well in another marquee meet. Megan McGreal doubled the 800/1500 in 2:24.33/5:09.01. While neither time was a PR for Megan, it was still a good race effort in both events for the sophomore. Meanwhile Ryan Jorgenson reset his own club record in the 800, running 1:55.07, though he is hungry to cut more time off of that come championship season. Mike Brothers ran 1:59.65, and Alex Manaois sped to a 2:02.47 to round out our athletes in that event. In the 1500, Zach Boehmke ran 4:17.33, with Arthur Eng right behind him in 4:18.99, both credible times from the underclassmen.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Vignesh Karthikeyan moved up in distance to the 5,000 meters and ran an excellent race, running 15:43.93. That time places him high atop the NCTFA lists for that event and well within the top 10 all-time for the club. I think Mr. Karthikeyan just found himself entered in a new event at Nationals.

That was all the action from two weekends ago at Miami of Ohio, check back soon for the recap of this past weekend when the Illinois Track Club had a split-squad at Benedictine and Wheaton!

Every year now since the Illinois Track Club got serious about having a track season, the team has gone to Washington University in Saint Louis to kick off their outdoor season. All of the upperclassmen are excited to return to the magical Bushyhead track to race under the lights, and by the time spring rolls around, the whole team is excited to get on the big outdoor tracks. With the big heats, great competition for the whole team, and the excitement of the lights, everyone ran well this past weekend in Saint Louis.

Starting with the sprint folks, Coach Jack Skelton”s crew had a banner day, setting new club records in the women”s 100, 200 and 400, 4×1, 4×4, 100HH and 400H on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. Sarah Sheehan, a freshman from Huntley, set the 100 and 200 records with times of 13.70 and 27.63 seconds respectively. Meanwhile, fellow freshman Lizzie Gauen set the club record in the 400 with a blazing time of 62.71 seconds. These races speak well for their future exploits with the club if they both are setting records so early in their club careers. Another highlight was that the girls” sprint squad finally was able to field a full 4×1 comprised solely of sprinters, rather than mid-d fill-ins, with the team of Nishio, Evans, Murphy and Sheehan setting a new record of 52.78 seconds. They also, according to Coach Skelton, had some very successful handoffs, so that is a positive heading forward into championship season. The 4×4 of Gauen, Evans, Henderson and Cudnowski set a new record of 4:23.67 as well. To round out the record setting day, Nao Nishio set the 110 hurdles record of 18.64 and Cassie Arenz set the 400 hurdles record with 1:19.67. The guys sprint squad did not disappoint either, as Jack Skelton set a new record in the 400 with a 49.21, and he also helped bring the 4×4 across the line with another new record of 3:23.71. Other members of that record-setting effort were Ryan Jorgenson, Mike Brothers, and James Leigh.

Moving up to the mid-distance folks, the 1500 was a positive for the women, as Jo Dibuz ran 5:02.52, and fellow sophomore Megan McGreal won her heat with a time of 5:01.71 seconds. Megan ran out in front the whole race, pulling away steadily from the field and winning handily. In the men”s 1500, Maz Silva had a banner day, running 4:19.81 in the 1500 and coming back in the 800 to run a 2:09.37. It was certainly a good day for the freshman from Lane Tech. Mike Frigo and Brendan McDonnell moved down to do the 1500/800 meter double, and Frigo won the 1500 with a time of 3:54.11, and came back to place 8th in the 800 with a 1:56.57, while McDonnell ran 4:10.02 and 2:05.39, which is not too shabby for a long distance runner.

Continuing up the distances, the long distance team did very well on Friday night under the lights. In what might be a very impressive first (and showing Coach Jake Englander”s excellent prognosticating abilities), Jess Mulcrone was within .36 of her seed time in the 5000, running a superb 19:39.64. Meanwhile, Jess Ang set a PR by almost two minutes in the 10,000 with a 44:56, and Vicky Ngo-Lam ran a good race in hitting 22:16.62. On the guy”s side, Chris Valicka had an impressive outdoor 5k debut, and Andrew Gazdziak moved into the top 10 all-time with a 15:57.59. Lastly, in the 10k, Matt Birkel became #4 all-time with a 33:05.34, and Mark Hayes ran faster than double his 5k PR in hitting a 33:07.14.

In the field events, Katharina Rains set a new club record in the high jump with a leap of 1.50 meters. The throws had a great weekend, as records were smashed in both the shot and hammer. Chad Bobbit heaved the shot 12.84 meters for that record, and Matt Kmet launched the hammer 45.12 meters to break his own record.

The whole team is beginning to get into the swing of things as outdoors kicked off with a bang in Missouri. Now, its back to the grindstone with only a few weeks left before the all-important NCTFA Nationals meet at the end of April. We”re back to training hard, with parts of the team racing each of the next two weekends at Miami of Ohio and Benedictine. It was a great opening to outdoors, and we are looking forward to getting back on the track soon!