9 Days Until Nationals…
Get your Foolish April behavior ready to be put on display in Michigan!
Be on the lookout for the FINAL Pre-Nationals Track and Field Rankings early next week!
Nationals Entries are LIVE, and will be rolling in throughout the week. This year, NIRCA has opened them to be viewed as they come in- the first time for Track & Field Nationals.
CLUB LEADERS, MAKE SURE TO SUBMIT ENTRIES BY 11:59PM PST FRIDAY 4/3.
CRC’s own Owen Christou created a helpful reference sheet detailing the NIRCA Nationals schedule, along with the automark times/distances and heat estimations.
We’ve started a new athlete profile series here on Substack. CRC’s Nicholas Pell is helping you get to know all of the returning T&F champions. Check out the first article on reigning 800m champ Emanuel Williams, and our most recent article on Triple Jump champion Eddie Grill!
As always, don’t forget to check out the National Running Club Database! We’re doing our best to make sure every meet is uploaded! There are sure to be a few meets we missed on the Database, but you can add it and it will be included! More information about that can be found on the Database website.
If you or anyone else on your club wants to get in on the Coaches Poll action, check out the information packet created by the one and only Jonathan Karr!
DMV Championships
This past weekend we saw James Madison host the Mid-Atlantic Showdown, featuring 14 clubs from across all of the Eastern regions competing for the last laugh before nationals. The Virginia schools came to prove they should stay hosting, showing NIRCA they made a mistake in moving the national championship to Olivet. UVA walked away with the men’s title over VCU and landed second to the other Virginia, WVU, on the women’s side.
Team Scores
Men
UVA-135
VCU-101.5
UMD-96
Women
WVU-133
UVA-114.5
VCU-88
Sprints
This one started off with a BANG. Jamil Yacoubou -who has taken club running by storm in his first year- laid down an insane 10.86 seconds, good for #4 all-time in the 100m dash. Kris Kim from UVA got in on the action too with an impressive 11.09, which earns him the #8 spot on the all time NIRCA rankings. In the 200m, Jamil doubled back with a 22.28, good for a #8 spot of his own. Taize Simmons of Virginia Commonwealth University and Ashton Sober of WVU followed up with a 23.01 and 23.14 respectively, adding them to the LONG list of potential 200m all-americans at nationals. The 400 saw Logan Hurney (UMD) and Landon Reeves (VCU) go head to head, with Reeves’ 50.23 being enough to hold off Hurney’s 50.66. Watch out for Reeves to represent VCU on the podium as a top 3 400m runner going into Olivet. Alright, it’s been 2 sentences since the last Jamil mention, so we’ll go back to our roots by mentioning his #2 all-time 110mH time of 14.33 seconds, only a hundredth of a second off the NIRCA record.
Jumping to the women’s side of the sprints category, Ure Nwokodji of VCU left her mark at the showdown, breaking the 13 second barrier in the 100m and going 26.88 in the 200m. A name you should be familiar with by now is Joia Peters of NC State, who did her best Michael Irvin impression this weekend, bringing out the belt in both hurdle events. The 100mH saw her go a ridiculous 14.80, which would be a new NIRCA record if it didn’t already belong to her from the week prior. If you thought things couldn’t get any crazier in the 400mH, you’d be dead wrong. Peters ripped a 1:05.9, confirming her status as the top 400m hurdler of all-time, according to our Database. The women hurdlers should be thanking their lucky stars that NC State is not attending Nationals, because we’re afraid that competition would be over before it even got started.
Distance
Ethan Lapier opens the distance category with another All-American caliber performance of 1:55.66 in the 800m, continuing an impressive first season with the Cavaliers. The 1500 was, in our opinion, the best race of the meet. Cayden Stoner (UVA) with 4:04.13 led the sub-4:10 pack over VCU’s Noah Urchek (4:04.51) George Washington’s Connor Mayer (4:07.64) and Cayden’s teammate, Sebastian Nowicki (4:07.75) We expect the 1500m at nationals to be one of, if not THE closest event, and this past weekend only confirmed that. Other notable performances in the distance events are Ryan Tyberg’s 9:46.46 3k Steeplechase mark for the Terrapins, which would have put him 4th at last year’s Nationals. Finally, in the 5k we were blessed with a Nicholas Grace (NCST) and Jack Morgan (UVA) race to the line which ended with Grace on top with 15:07.87 to Morgan’s 15:12.97
Addy Funk of William and Mary had herself a day, winning the 1500m with a 4:57.42 and placing 3rd in the 800m with 2:28.73. UVA’s Gabby Santucci continued her top-tier season with an 18:15.0 in the 5k, followed by Jane Smith of Georgetown with an 18:31. Tough to tell where they will end up at Nationals based off of last year’s results, cuz, well, y’know. Either way though, watch out for these girls on the home stretch, whichever lap that ends up being.
Field
In High Jump,the WVU pair of Christian Hicks (1.82m/6ft) and Henry Lochbihler (1.77/5-10) easily won 18 points, and could steal some more points in Olivet, depending on how the field shakes out. VCU’s TJ Norman jumped a 43-08 to beat Towson’s Jayden Smith (42-06). Watch out for VCU, they’ve made huge strides as of late and do not plan on leaving Olivet with fewer points than they have had in past years.
In women’s discus, 2 girls set All-American caliber marks with American University’s Jasmine DeSouto (31.69m) and Alicia Teal (WVU) tossing 30.91m. Alongside Joia Peters, a name you should know just as well is M’Kayla Murdaugh from VCU, who “vaulted” herself to a 1.62m/5-04ft high jump, which would’ve placed her at 2nd at last year’s Nationals. We couldn’t recap JMU’s home meet without mentioning their own Aurora Ayla, who jumped 4.76m in the long jump, which puts her on All-American watch based on this and last year’s compiled results.
Wrap-Up
Overall, JMU hosted a FANTASTIC meet that demonstrated that even if your squad chooses not to attend Nationals (for any number of reasons), the opportunity to compete at a high level among fellow club athletes in a structured, well organized way, can still exist. We love seeing clubs continue to host, and begin, their own meets, and encourage other clubs to strongly consider attending these meets for the benefit of everyone.
Last-Minute NIRCA Comp
Big Blue Outdoor Opener
Purdue and Illinois State both made the trip to Decatur, IL to go up against some DIII comp along with the NIRCA challenge they brought each other.
I want as many people to read this as possible so I’ll start off with the thrower Daniel Adams from Purdue. He cemented his name in the record books this weekend becoming the first club athlete to best the 50m mark in Discus this weekend. He set a new best mark by 2 meters, throwing a distance of 50.50m.
Sprinters Toju Maku (Purdue) and Frederick Johnson (ISU) laid down some incredible times with Frederick making himself a national contender with his 50.38 400m and Toju putting on a clinic with a 10.75 for one of the fastest hundreds ever run by a clubber. Melis Ayhan (Purdue) had a spectacular day on the women’s side of the sprints, pulling off the brutal triple of 100/200/400 and with the times she laid down, 12.84, 26.22, & 1:00.14, We know her legs were HURTING afterwards.
Purdue also had a crazy distance duo doing crazy distance things in Decatur. Joseph Redle, their XC breakout, went for the 1500/800 double throwing down a 3:57.39 and 1:58.68. That 1500 time makes him a real threat for the title and he’s already working his NIRCA racing chops by competing against his teammate Jack Graham who ran a 3:58.36. I’m sure Jack will be looking to get his get back at nationals but that was really just a warm-up for the 15:06.90 5000m he ran later. These Purdue guys are coming in hot with the shorter travel time to Olivet.
Landon Bond Classic
In Berea, Kentucky we saw a potential precursor to the championship 1500m this season as Tennessee’s Oliwia Wawrzyniak and Lauren Rutlin toed the line against Charlotte Priest from Kentucky. The trio laid down some All-American level times of 4:54.93 for Charlotte, 4:50.77 for Lauren and a shocking 4:41.15 from Oliwia that elevates her to being a favorite in this event come next week’s championship.
Asher Mattox from Kentucky is making a name for himself just ahead of the big race, throwing down a CRAZY 54.63 to make himself the easy favorite going into this event. If he can replicate that performance, few men in NIRCA can compete with him.
Cedarville Yellow Jacket Collegiate Outdoor Open
Ohio State, Michigan, Cincinnati, and Bowling Green made for an uber-NIRCA competitive non-NIRCA meet in Ohio on Saturday.
OSU is making a bid for being our newest Sprinter-U as Gabe Oppong crushed the 100m with a 10.77, Jaedon Chase killed the 200m with a time of 22.10, and Owen Lumpkin put down a 50.31 to kill the 400m. Arnae Rogers also snagged the 100 win on the women’s side with a 13.07. Their club’s talent doesn’t stop at sprints and Joseph Sigall made that KNOWN with a 14:57.01 5000m for one of the top marks of the season. This team certainly wishes NIRCA would implement the Pole Vault at Nationals (...they should) because Ben Stockdale and Ethan Metz’s marks of 4.57m and 4.42m are two of the best marks ever hit by NIRCA athletes.
Michigan’s women’s squad are gearing up to attempt to win back-to-back. Elena Granados competed in FIVE individual events and put down marks in all of them that point to her being a titan on the track next week. Watch out for her at nationals in all of the sprints AND any field event. The 800 dominance of Jenna Houdek was on full display as the heavy national favorite ran a 2:17.35. Thea Schley has really been coming on for the Wolverines as the season has progressed with a 4:47.18 this week as she goes for the title on her home turf.
Charlotte Outdoor Club Invitational
Charlotte hosted their annual outdoor meet this past weekend inviting schools from all over NC to compete. We love to see meets happening in the Southeast with many of these schools being unable to go to nationals or bring many people if they can go with it being all the way in Michigan this year.
Rapid Fire Now Y’all
Pieter Heesters (Notre Dame) did the unthinkable on Saturday, braving the rarely contested 10000m at WashU’s Distance Carnival to lay down his latest national record. His time -> 29:43.20, clears the next best by over a minute.
Emanuel Williams (UNC) competed this past weekend in Raleigh, laying down a 1:54.08 in his first 800 of the season.
Emanuel’s teammate Colter Sienkiewicz also ran at Raleigh Relays this weekend, in the 1500m. He threw down a crazy 3:55.57 for the best mark of the season.
In the Shot Put, Tommy Fiorelli (Pitt) threw a 13.52m for the seventh strongest mark of a strong year for the event.
Ainslee Torres (Pitt) is steadily improving her 800, running a 2:24.32 that will make her very competitive come Olivet.
Penn State went to Lafayette this weekend, and braved the (seemingly) hurricane-force winds that defined the day. Zaid Nasrawi (PSU) ran a ½ double of 10.64 and 21.43 that were miraculously wind-legal in the Pennsylvania storm. His 200m time puts him #2 all-time, second to only Will Barhite (current UM varsity athlete). His 10.64 puts him at NIRCA #3 all-time tied with, guess who, former teammate Toju Maku who ran this exact time at the very same meet as a member of PSUTFC last year. You can’t make this stuff up. The 110m Hurdles is shaping up to possibly be the most competitive event at nationals this year and Paul Netland III ran a 15.08 to just barely miss the 15-second barrier once again.
At UMASS’ Pioneer Invitational, a wild 4x400m went down to finish off the events of the meet. UConn took the race in 3:28.70 over a 3:31.96. Both teams could be in play for points here next week.