The Michigan State Running Club brought twenty five members to the Illinois Club Relays, the most ever brought by MSU to a track meet.  This year’s edition of the popular club invitational drew competition from fourteen clubs from all over the Midwest.  The fact that there were eight heats of the men’s mile is a testament to the immense number of competitors that circled the track in the Armory last weekend.  Since the meet was conducted in relay style, with the top two performances from each team eligible to score points, every second and meter mattered.  MSU RC proved themselves as one of the top tier clubs in the region by taking 4th on the women’s side and 5th on the men’s.

     Christian Marier and Pat Frahm started the meet off right by scoring points in the 60 Hurdles and 60 Dash.  The duo continued to rack up points all day in the field events and sprints, namely the High Jump and Long Jump.  Andrew Crechiolo and Jordan Prather also performed in the Shot Put.

     Sarah MacKenzie showed great form as she turned in the club’s highest individual finish of the day with her 2nd place finish in the High Jump at 1.45 meters (just over 4’9”).

     The women’s 4x8 of Stephanie Schmidt, Tarah Thompson, Megan McNitt, and Christina Casali scored six points after finishing 5th behind a couple of B teams.  Their time of 10:32.7 is a new club record by 25 seconds.  The men entered two teams, (Ben Lambert, Mark Choate, Andrew, Josh Klebba), (Ryan Squanda, Ben Fleck, Brady Ryan, Jordan) finishing 10th and 19th respectively.

     The men’s 4x2 of Jordan, Pat, Christian, and Andrew took 9th place in 1:45.

     The 3k saw several personal bests from the Spartans, starting with Margaret Levasseur’s 2nd place finish of 10:52, which she turned out in a tough battle with an Indiana runner.  Kathryn Dugal, in her first ever attempt at the distance, ran a solid 12:16.  Adam Terwillegar broke the existing club record by three seconds with his time of 9:11.  Jeff Girbach also ran a PR of 9:26, while Kevin Glime (9:30), Trent Johnson (10:13), and Ryan Squanda (10:29) tried the distance for the first time.  Colin Riley ran 9:39 after a few months out from injury.

     The women’s Sprint Medley of Megan, Kathryn, Sarah Mackenzie, and Nicole Traitses finished in 5:04.  They moved up from last into 4th place thanks to Nicole’s strong anchor leg.  Jordan, Pat, Ben Lambert, and Josh ran 4:02 in the men’s race.

     The mile of the women’s mile proved to be a good show.  Margaret and Steph ran stride for the stride for the entire race, kicking in to finish 3rd and 4th in 5:27 behind the NIRCA cross country champion and MRun’s top runner.  Tarah (6:02), Christina (6:19), and Nicole (6:25) also contributed to the points earned in this event, as the scoring went four deep.  The men also scraped out a couple points in the mile.  Adam, at 4:42, led a squad of milers that streamed in between 4:49 and 5:00 (Ben Fleck, Kevin, Brady, Ben Lambert, Jeff, and Chase).  Trent (5:11), Ryan (5:13), and Kristian Wosik (5:20) were not far behind.

     After a couple last minute roster changes in the 4x4, the women’s teams ran to 9th and 12th place (our first women’s B relay ever).  All eight girls split between 70 and 75.  The men entered a previously unheard four teams in the 4x4, taking 10th, 25th, 32nd, and 33rd place.

     All in all, the women finished with 27 points while the men scored 31 points.  Illinois took both team titles in around 100 points.

- Colin Riley, 3/3/13