Naperville, Ill. — The Scarlet Hawks returned to the track and the field after a three-week hiatus at the First Chance Invitational hosted by North Central College. The meet proved a good benchmark for the Hawks as they dive into the outdoor season. Across the two days of competition, multiple Hawks either set PRs or broke school records.
Senior Ajibola Claudius-Akinyemi snagged the spotlight on Saturday, breaking two school records in personal best times. In the 100-meter dash, he ran a time of 10.83 seconds, beating his previous school record of 11.09 and placing 7th out of 100 competitors. Later that evening, Claudius-Akinyemi lined up for the 200-meter dash and ran a blazing 22.26s, improving on his indoor personal record (PR) of 22.60 and causing a 4-year-old school record to fall.
In the 400-meter dash, Peter Mayer ran an outdoor PR of 51.12, just shy of the school record. He placed 7th out of 42.
About 15 minutes after Claudius-Akinyemi claimed his record, Annaelle Mukash grabbed a school record of her own, breaking the women's 100-meter dash record with a time of 12.89 seconds in her first ever outdoor meet. First-year Kailey Nicholas took down another school record, in the triple jump, leaping 10.65m. On the distance side, Rachel Brettin and Sophia Halama posted Illinois Tech top 10 performances while Lida Ahsaei, Kailey Nicholas, Bella Ortiz and Jada Mulrow did the same in the field.
From head coach Tyler McQuality: "What a great outdoor opening highlighted by multiple school records! This is the best weather we have had for late March and our sprints and field events definitely took advantage of the opportunity. It is great to see all of the hard work we put in during the post-indoor training block pay off!
Assistant coach Lucas Taylor, who works closely with the throwing events, expressed similar excitement: "The throwers had a great first meet of the year. Three new PRs were set along with every athlete being close to their personal bests in the other events they competed in, or having very solid throws that ended in a scratch. With a few more weeks of practice, everyone is sure to keep improving and getting personal bests."
Other Notable Performances:
Women's
-
5000 meters – Sophia Halama- 19:40.20 (Personal Record, #9 on women's indoor record book)
-
1500 meters – Rachel Brettin - 5:02.17 (PR, #4)
-
400 meters – Zoe Turner - 1:01.02 (PR, 5th place in meet), Amelia Moseman – 58.82 (2nd place)
-
High Jump – Lida Ahsaei – 1.34m (PR, #8)
-
Long Jump – Kailey Nicholas- 4.61m (PR, #3), Bella Ortiz- 4.24m (PR, #10)
-
Triple Jump – Kailey Nicholas-10.65m (PR, #3)
-
Hammer Throw– Jada Muldrow –29.55m (PR, #3)
Men's
-
100 meters – Ajibola Claudius-Akinyemi – 10.83, (School Record, PR)
-
200 meters– Ajibola Claudius-Akinyemi – 22.26, (School Record, PR)
-
400 meters – Peter Mayer - 51.12 (#2 all-time)
Up Next:
The Hawks head back out to the suburbs for three days of competition at the Chicagoland Championships hosted by Elmhurst University. Throwing events will be held Thursday at Wheaton College, while all running events will go off Friday and Saturday at Elmhurst University. Thursday and Sunday's competitions are slated to begin at 10:00 AM, while Friday's events will start at 3:00 PM.
