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This past weekend at the University of Illinois Armory, the Illinois Track Club hosted 18 other club teams from around the Midwest in the largest club-only meet to date. For the first time all season, the entire Illinois team was able to compete in the presence of all their teammates, as previous to this the team had several split squads going to different meets.

As the Armory filled in with all of the competing teams, the races began with the slow heats of the women”s 3,000 meters. In the first section, Kathryn Krueger did an excellent job of pulling her teammates Kelsey Wiora and Emily McGowan through to great times of 12:42.25 and 12:41.74 respectively. While Kathryn herself fell off slightly to a 12:52.63, her self-sacrifice in pacing her teammate provided a perfect guideline for other Illini athletes. In this heat, Lainey Ortiz and Vicky Ngo-Lam ran credible times of 13:51.13 and 13:06.53 respectively. Kelly Kramsey (Illinois Elite) and Jess Ang both ran well together in the second heat, with times of 12:11.97 and 12:17.67, while Catherine Hajduk was one of the surprises of the day, posting a superb time of 11:55.10.

Moving on to the slow heats of the men”s 3,000 meters, while we had no men in the slowest heat, in the second of five heats there were Greg Chavez, Sam Ricker, Minray Yang, and Steve Kleine (Illinois Elite) representing the ITC. In this race, Sam Ricker ran a phenomenal PR of 10:08, 12 seconds faster than his seed time, while Minray and Steve still ran decent races, going 11 flat and 10:20 respectively. In the next heat, Henry Wolf had himself a banner day, running 9:24, and Chris Valicka, Dan Herber (Illinois Elite) and Chris Hazel also acquitted themselves well. Out of the next heat, and last of the slow heats, Al Snyder made a splash in his first Club Relays, running a PR of 9:16. The rest of the 6 Illinois men in the heat all gave a good showing of themselves and the club as well.

In the 4×800 meter relays, both Illinois A-teams won, with the women winning handily in 9:56 and the men eking out a victory on a last lap kick by Ryan Jorgenson, 8:02.1 to 8:03.96 over Indiana. In the women”s 60, Erin Murphy was 2nd overall in 8.55 and Nao Nishio finished right behind her in 8.66 to lead the Illinois women to a first place showing in that relay event. On the men”s side, Fuad Akinbiyi (7.27) and Matt Halberthal (7.28) went 4-5, putting the Illini second in that event. In a rare slip-up for the sprints squad, all three (1 men”s, 2 women”s) 4×200 meter relay teams were DQ”ed for poor handoffs. It was a disappointing result for the sprinters, and something they are striving to improve in practices.

Next on the track were the fast heat of both the men”s and women”s 3,000 meters. On the women”s side, Jess Mulcrone led her group with excellent teamwork and pacing to bring our top three women to under 11:30 finishes, all the while finishing with an outstanding 11:25 herself. Mike Frigo kicked off his standout day by winning the 3,000 comfortably in a 8:49.56, winning by over 6 seconds over second place. Brendan McDonnell, still dealing with the ill effects of a cold, ran a gutsy 8:57.97.

The sprinters came roaring back from their disappointing 4×200”s in the Sprint Medley Relays and set new records on both the men”s (3:44.00) and women”s (4:46.16) sides. That is definitely the sort of resiliency and heart that will be needed in the hunt for a NCTFA title. In the 4 by mile relays, the Illini women”s team won by over a minute over the next closest competitor Michigan, while Mike Frigo came back with an amazing anchor leg to bury Indiana 18:07 to 18:11. He took the stick several seconds down and turned that into a several second lead in the last 200 meters. In the last track event, Illinois won both the men”s and women”s 4×400 meter relays, both in new meet records. Thus concluded a phenomenal day on the track for the Illinois Track Club.

In the field events, success was no less harder to find for our Illini athletes. In the high jump relay, Erin Murphy and Emily McGown led the team to victory. Erin continued her streak of good performances in the long jump, setting a new club record of 4.87 meters, helping the team score a second place win there. Lizzie Gauen competed in an off event, and with Katharina Rains, earned first place in the shot put relay. On the men”s side, Tyler Blum and Steve Kelder garnered a second place in the high jump relay, and Steve went on to place 5th in the long jump relay (alongside Ben Kanevsky) and third in the triple jump relay (also with Ben). Chad Bobbitt won the shot put, and with Matt Kmet, won first place in the shot put relay.

After the last gun had gone off and the last jumper left the pit, the team scores were tabulated. The Illinois Track Club won going away on both the men”s and women”s sides, winning 82-51 over northern rival Wisconsin on the women”s side, and 86-69 over a quickly improving Northern Illinois squad on the men”s side. Thus, the cow was retained for another year, and the Illinois Track Club swept the team titles for yet another year.

With these great results in the bag, indoor season has now concluded, and the Illini are back to training hard in the search for fast times and team titles in outdoors.

Club relays was a great success this weekend! Photos, videos, and a meet summary will be available shortly.

This weekend the Illinois Track Club split between two races – the EIU Friday Night Special in Charleston, Il and Kent State Tune-Up in Kent, Ohio.

Down in Charleston the Illini had some great performances. Chadd Bobbit had two throws at 13.15m, . Lizzie Gauen had a good 400, running an indoor PR of 64.9. Matt ran a 23.2 in the 200, also setting an indoor PR for the season. On the distance side of things Henry Wolf and Joe Zeller both showed some great teamwork, working together to run 9:35 and 9:39, respectively. Alex lyons had a great race as well, running 4:24 for the mile.

Over in Kent, Ohio Mike Frigo smashed the club 3k record, running 8:23:59. Ryan Jorgensen had the race of the weekend, running 1:56.1 for 800m. On the womens side Thea Cudnowski ran a nice 2:28 for 800m.

Overall a good weekend for the Illini. Everyone will be running at Club Relays this upcoming weekend. Come to the Armory at 12pm on 12/25!

This past weekend, the Men and Women of the Illinois Cross Country Club competed at the NIRCA National Championships in North Carolina. After a long and arduous season, the Men and Women were able to bring their best race on the day that mattered. And, it paid off beyond belief. On Saturday, November 12th, the Men and Women became the newly crowned NIRCA National Champions.

For the men, the main competition was Iowa State”s Running Club. With Mike Frigo (Sr.) leading the charge with a 3rd place overall finish, the IXC Men were able to take home the title by a margin of almost 30 points over Iowa State. Aaron Silver (Sr.) and Brendan McDonnell (So.) were able to sneak in to the First Team All American spots with a 5th place and 13th place finish respectively. Ron Revord (Sr.), the IXCC”s 4th man, was able to get the last Second Team All American slot at the NIRCA championships. Rounding out the scoring five was Matt Birkel (So.), who stepped up big time to help the men bring home the title. But, perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was the IXCC”s 6th man. Vigneshwar Karthikeyan (Jr.) came almost out of nowhere to be in the top 7 for the team, running a fantastic race in the process.

The Illinois Women had a bit of a tougher road going into the competition. The women of the University of Virginia”s running club looked to be the clear favorites after the first 4k of race.

But, the race didn”t end at 4k.

Two kilometers later, the IXC Women showed that they had the best finish of any club team in NIRCA. Amanda Zamora (So.), Grace Hucek (So.), Kerry Devitt (Grad.), Jo Dibuz (So.), and Mary Looby (Grad.) (pushed along by the women”s coach, Jess Mulcrone, who finished one place behind Mary…) ran their hearts out, and it was just enough to get the women”s title by only 2 points. All of the Women seemed to be running with an incredible amount of heart, and it was simply amazing to watch them come from relative obscurity to being NIRCA National Champions.

It was a fantastic experience for all who were involved.

This is it.

Today, the Men and Women of the Illinois Cross Country Club head out to the biggest meet of the season: the NIRCA National Championships in North Carolina.

Both the Men and the Women are looking to win it all. Both the Men and the Women have been thinking about this race for months. Both the Men and the Women have put in all the work that they could muster so they would have the best race on the day that mattered the most in the season. On Saturday, when the Illinois Cross Country club line up on their respective starting lines, they”ll know.

They”ll know that they can be the best Men”s and Women”s Club Cross Country Team in the nation.

Good luck, ladies.

Good luck, gentlemen.

Let”s come back champions.

Last weekend, the IXC Men and Women headed out to Iowa for the NIRCA Great Plains Regional hosted by the Mizzou Running Club. Both races went off fairly early, with the Men”s race at 9 am and the Women”s race at 10 am. Although only a finishing team was required to make it to the National meet on November 12th, both the Men and Women were looking to win the Regional meet before heading off to North Carolina.

Sadly, the Men fell short by a mere 4 points to the Iowa State Running Club. Mike Frigo (Sr.) took the individual Regional title, but it wasn”t quite enough for the IXC men to pull off the win. Brendan McDonnell (So.), Aaron Silver (Sr.), Ron Revord (Sr.), and Brett Lustgarten (Sr.) all had good races, but it just was not enough for the IXC men to take the title away from a strong Iowa State pack. There were a lot of great races by some of the other runners on the squad, though. Henry Wolf (So.) gets the big shout out of the week, though, with his stunning drop in time from his other races this past season. Henry finished 38th overall with a time of 28:19 over the 8 km course, running well out of his shoes to get there. The men look to pull a ‘”Henry Wolf'” in North Carolina when they hope to take down a tough Iowa State Club at Nationals. All or nothing; that is the nature of the championship season. And the IXC Men are hungry to get on the starting line.

The IXC Women ran an incredible race in Missouri, placing 1st overall as a team. The lead women”s pack held together almost all of the way through the finish line, destroying the rest of the competition in the process. Amanda Zamora (So.), Grace Hucek (So.), Kerry Devitt (Grad.), and Jo Dibuz (So.) went 3, 4, 5, 7, respectively, as a pack. Jessie Balagtas (So.) rounded out the top 5 with an 11th place finish, securing the win by over 40 points. A regional title was an awesome way to start off the Championship Season, but the ladies look to continue dominating over a much tougher field at Nationals.

Keep looking up, Men and Women. The real race is fast approaching.

On Saturday, October 15 the IXC men and women competed at the Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer Invitational at the Maple Grove Golf Course hosted by University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. A whopping 437 people competed in the Men”s 8 km race spread over 25 full teams, and 387 people competed in the Women”s 6 km race spread over 23 full teams.

The IXC Men placed 7th overall as a team, and in the process had a solid scoring 5 on the day. The team was led in by Mike Frigo (Sr.) and Brendan McDonnell (So.), both of whom placed within the top 30. Aaron Silver (Sr.), Mike Spillone (Alum), and Ron Revord (Sr.) rounded out the top 5 on the day for the men. The team did well, although not as well as they had envisioned. The pack was not quite as tight as was meant to be, but a lot of that had to do with how slow everyone on the team got out. Some people did well off of the slow early pace, and some fell off. Altogether, though, it was a good day. Only 14 men were able to make the trip, so everyone looked good but didn”t have the usual backing up they were used to. The IXC Men looked ahead to Regionals where they would be able to compete side by side with the entire team as a whole.

The IXC Women placed 12th overall as a team with a score of 322, just behind St. Olaf College. Amanda Zamora (So.) led the IXC Women in, placing 58th with a time of 23:59.7. Kerry Devitt (Grad.), a new addition to the top ladies group, ran awesome, placing 64th overall with a time of 24:05.7. Jo Dibuz (So.), Grace Hucek (So.), and Megan Mocogni (Fr.) rounded out the top 5 on the day for the ladies. The IXC Women also were only able to bring a small part of their team with them, but they performed well despite their lack of usual support. Overall, the Ladies ran a good race, and a smart race, which allowed them to do as well as they did on the day.

The Titan Invite took place on Friday, October 7th. It was hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University in the flat but windy Maxwell Park located in Normal, Illinois. The men competed in an 8 km race, while the women competed in a 5 km race. Not all of the IXC men and women were able to compete, but both teams were still looking to do their best at the meet.

The IXC Women placed second overall as a team behind a tough Illinois Wesleyan pack. The IXC ladies scored 49 to Illinois Wesleyans 21, and ran a great race in the process. Natalie Todd (Jr.) led the ladies in with a time of 20:54.67 over the 5k course, placing 6th overall in the process. Despite going out a bit slower than was meant, Jess Mulcrone (Sr.) and Monica O”Connor (Fr.) were 8th and 9th overall, bringing in the top 3 women before the 10th place finisher, which is always a good sign. To round out the scoring 5, Michelle Turner (Fr.) and Paige Newman (Sr.) finished 11th and 15th, respectively. Although some of the times were not what the ladies were looking for, the way the ladies attacked the race and competed throughout was spectacular. Many of the women finished looking as if they had given it there all, and that”s all you can ask for from a cross country team. Way to get after it, ladies.

The IXC Men went off second, and they immediately packed up after the gun in hopes of taking down the wind and the individuals who chose to brave the wind alone throughout the race. Vigneshwar Karthikeyen (Jr.) and Adam Snyder (So.) led the team in together, taking 4th and 5th respectively overall. Evan White (So.), Andrew Gazdziak (Jr.), and Thomas Galpin (Grad.) rounded out the scoring 5 on the day. The times across the board were a bit less than spectacular, but that didn”t matter much. What mattered was that the Men won the overall team race with a score of 35 over Lincoln College”s 43! Great job, guys! But, looking at bit deeper into the results, another fantastic performance other than the winning of the team title took place. Brandon Finn (So.), a transfer student from South Africa, ran an awesome race and locked up a pretty big PR on a less than ideal day. More importantly, he raced throughout and had a huge kick to come in 55th place with a time of 31:48.33. In his first year of competitive running EVER, what he did was really impressive. Way to go, Brandon!

On Saturday, October 1st the Illinois XC Club Men and Women headed out to downtown Chicago to race in the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational hosted by Loyola. With 48 teams entered on the men”s side and 45 teams entered on the women side, the IXC Club knew there was going to be great competition. And, so it was.

The men started off the day at 11:15 AM in the Men”s Collegiate 8k race. Most of the team got out nicely, and were able to tackle the infamous Hill 5 times without issue. Mike Frigo (Sr.) came through in first for the IXC Men, placing 28th overall in a time of 25:45. Paul Vandervelde (Grad.) was the second man on the day for the IXC men, running 26:06, which was good enough for 49th overall. Mike DeRenzo (So.) , Matt Birkel (So.) , and Blake Flood (So.) rounded out the top 5 for the Men, with Mike Spillone (IXC Club Alum) getting thrown into the mix of the scoring 5, making a cameo appearance after very little training.

Further down the lineup, there were some really big performances. One of the most incredible of these was Thomas Galpin (Graduate), our fastest Frenchman, running an incredible 28:25, placing 271st. Thomas PRed by 35 seconds from his time at EIU, which is a huge drop considering the difference in difficulties of the course (EIU being much flatter/quicker than Loyola). Great job Thomas!

On the team side of the race, the IXC Men finished 2nd out of the NIRCA teams within the race, losing to Iowa State Running Club by a mere 18 points. It was a fierce battle, but in the end the Men were unable to hold off Iowa State after a few minor hiccups within the usual top 5. Although the IXC Men were slightly disappointed by their finish, Coach Jake Englander looks to rebound the men in the upcoming meets.

As for the IXC Club Women, the race went off at 12:00 PM. The race started off just as crazily as the Men”s race, with 49 women”s teams competing and 538 total women in the race. The Ladies kept their wits about themselves and went out smart. Jo Dibuz (So.) came in first for the IXC Women, placing 129th overall with a time of 19:35. Amanda Zamora (So.) followed closely in 19:43 placing 144th overall. Grace Hucek (So.), Jessie Balagtas (So.), and Beth McGreal rounded out the top 5 for the IXC Women on the day.

The women placed 23rd out of 49 teams. In the process, the women were the 2nd Club Team, losing to the Michigan Running Club. The women look to keep their heads up and their eyes on the prize, as nationals is only a month away. Keep on doing what your doing, ladies.

Look for the Men and Women to be at the Parkside Invitational hosted by IWU on Friday, October 7th, and at the UW La Crosse Invitational on Saturday, October 15th.

On Friday, September 9, 2011 the IXC Club headed out to the EIU Walt Crawford Open in Charleston, Illinois. Conditions were perfect, with overcast skies and temperatures in the mid 60s. With such perfect conditions came some blazing fast times.

The IXC Women started off the day with a 5 kilometer race. The ladies did a fantastic job competing, putting 2 women under 20:00 and 10 women under 21:00. Amanda Zamora (So.) led the team with an incredible time of 19:12.82, breaking the former IXC Club EIU 5k record. Jessie Balagtas (So.) followed closely behind with a time of 19:16.05, en route breaking the old IXC Club EIU 5k record, too. Kerry Devitt, Victoria Knauf, Jess Mulcrone (Sr.), Ryoh Shinohara (Jr.), and Megan Mocogni rounded out the top 7 for the women on the day, all coming in under 20:40. All the hard work that the women have put in thus far is beginning to show. Nice job ladies!

The men, fueled by the stunning performances the women put up, set out to run some fast times for themselves in the 8 kilometer race. Led by Aaron Silver (Sr.), Mike Frigo (Sr.) and Paul Vandervelde (Law School Phenom), the team put on a spectacular display of early season strength, getting 3rd out of 11 teams in the race. Aaron Silver finished first for the IXC, getting 8th overall with a new EIU 8k club record of 25:29.68. Mike Frigo followed, running 25:32.81 and getting 11th overall. Paul Vandervelde and Brendan McDonnell (So.) were also able to dip underneath the 26:00 barrier. Matt Birkel (So.), Blake Flood (So.), and Brett Lustgarten (Sr.) rounded out the top 7 for the Men. Some awesome statistics from the day include:

– 4 men under 26:00

-10 men under 27:00

-All but 4 IXC Men running at or under their 8k PR

Some big performances that deserve some attention include Alex Harrison (Jr.), Evan White (So.), Mark Hayes (So.), and Zach Boehmke (So.) running at or over 90 second 8k PR”s. Top freshman on the day was Arthur Eng, who ended up finishing 12th for the IXCC Men and 64th overall.

In all honesty, one could not write enough on here to display how incredibly the IXC Men and Women ran at EIU this year. Everybody showed up to race, and conditions permitted them all to race fast. It was a great day all around.