Wheaton, Ill.— After two weeks of multi-day competitions, the Illinois Tech Track and Field Team was finally back together this weekend (almost) to compete at the Wheaton Invitational on Saturday. The night before, distance runners Joseph Loriso and Sophia Halama traveled up Platteville Wisconsin for an invitational of their own hosted by the University of Wisconsin Platteville. Both meets saw great competition opportunities for the Hawks as they reached the halfway point of the outdoor season.
Up in Platteville, both Loriso and Halama put on stellar performances in the 5000-meter run to cement their names in the Illinois Tech record books. Loriso ran a time one-second faster (15:13.56) than his performance at this same meet last year, earning a new 2nd all-time, while Halama ran a 25 second personal record (19:15.75) to earn her 8th all-time in the fastest time for the Hawks in 10 years.
On Saturday, the rest of the team did their best to follow in the footsteps of Loriso and Halama: Kailey Nicholas secured a new school record in the Triple Jump with a leap (or three) of 10.74m. Olivia Jameson took a break from jumping to secure a new school record in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.87. Rachel Brettin ran a personal best 2:25.50 in the 800m to secure 3rd all-time while Jada Mulrow threw an outdoor PR 8.95m in the shotput, also 3rd all-time.
While there were no school records on the men's side, Alejandro Torres ran a personal best 16:11.48 in the 5000-meter run for 10th all-time, Rishi Patel jumped a 5th all-time 11.41 meters in the Triple Jump and Ty Garrison threw 40.23m in Javelin Throw for 7th all-time.
From Head Coach Tyler McQuality, "Another meet and another great opportunity to compete in fantastic spring weather. We took advantage of that and the results and records that went down are a direct result as we get closer and closer to conference!"
It wasn't all sunshine though—as noted by assistant coach Evan Balizado: "We are at the point in the season where all athletes on teams are fighting through injuries, sickness and prepping for the last few weeks of the academic year and I'm so proud of our athletes for fighting for every second, place and centimeter. With one month to go this season, all of our focus is peaking at the right time!"
Up Next:
The Hawks have a quick turnaround as they prepare for the Wheaton Don Church Invitational hosted at Wheaton College once again on Thursday, April 17th.
