MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
RUNNING CLUB
Underdog Michigan State Club Notches 4th and 6th Place Finishes at Track Nats
NIRCA Spring Nationals
Saturday April 5th, 2014
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Last November, 31 members of the Michigan State Running Club ran at NIRCA Cross Country Nationals in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Last week, almost as many traveled to NIRCA Spring Nationals, featuring Half Marathon, Track, and Field events. Cross Nats was free, Spring Nats cost $45. You people don’t make sense.
The haphazard budgeting skills of this club aside, this past weekend could not have gone better for the 30 Spartans who ran, jumped, or threw in Bloomington. Starting the day off bright and early was Emma Winn (and her cheering section) in the Half Marathon, running an impressive 1:41:22 on the notoriously hilly Bloomington course. She finished 21st of the NIRCA Women and averaged 7:45 miles over the 13.1 mile course.
For the rest of the club who has been braving the frigid Michigan winter and pounding out laps on the indoor track at Jenison all season, the sunny and warm conditions were a perfect reward. In the prelims of the 100m, Zina Lalizas ran 15.27 to start off her busy day, which included a 6th place finish in the Triple Jump (8.51m) and a 3.94m leap in the Long Jump. On the men’s side, Tom Eby ran 11.72 and Phil Baeza ran 12.97.
The women of the 4x800m kicked off the finals with a bang by placing a close 2nd to Illinois. Tarah Thompson did what she does best, establishing a strong lead of 2:27. Megan McNitt faded slightly in 2:38, while Christina Casali closed up the gap with her 2:29 leg. Valerie Morel went out hard and caught up to the Illinois anchor, but came up short. They ran 10:05 and smashed the old club record.
Riding that high, Steph Schmidt led wire to wire in the 5000m and became the club’s first ever National Champion. Not only is her 17:57 a club record by over a minute, but she won by 8 seconds in a competitive race that saw 12 girls break last year’s championship record. Kathryn Dugal and Shannon Line ran in the second heat and finished in 22:05 and 22:44 respectively. Though Shannon accidentally finished a lap early, she was certainly on pace for a personal record. Even the pros do it! (YouTube “US Olympian Lopez Lomong miscounts laps in 5k mishap”). The men’s race also went well, seeing Colin Riley (8th) and Trent Johnson set personal records of 15:36 and 16:19 respectively. Alex Miros came very close to his best time and closed well to run 16:21.
Olivia Spagnuolo had a tough hour or so where she placed All-American in both the 100m Hurdles (19.57, 6th) and the 400m Hurdles (75.71, 2nd), as well as running the 200m Prelims (31.76). Jeremy Bebber also fared well in his hurdle opener, running 59.79 for 5th. Jared Emerson ran 66.41.
In the 200m Prelims, Tom advanced to the final by virtue of his 22.99, the third fastest prelim time. He improved to 22.98 in the final and finished 4th. Jared (23.48), Billy Millar (25.02), and Phil (25.65) also did well in the various heats of the 200m.
A ton of people ran in the 1500m, because the metric mile is so fun, right? Steph (4:55) and Christina (4:58) racked up some points and All-American finishes in the fast heat, both closing hard to run 4th and 8th respectively. In the second heat, Megan ran a personal best of 5:32 and Kathryn ran 6:08 in her first mile/1500m since high school. In the first of many epic showdowns, Colin held off the sit-and-wait tactics of Ryan Squanda, running 4:17 to Sassy’s 4:24. Ben Lambert went hard with 300 to go and ran 4:22, and Paul Salachdipped under 4:30 with his 4:29. Lucas Bowman (4:35), Jonathan Sollish (4:38), Trent (4:42, not in official results), Austin Katona (4:48), and Mike Kincaid (5:40) also tried their hand at the 1500m. Everyone ran a personal best in the 1500m except Lucas, because he’s cool and ran it in at an AAU meet in high school.
Val and Tarah decided to make their lives hell and run 2 800s and 2 400s. Val clinched a point in the 400m, finishing in 9th and 65.51. Tarah was close behind in 66.66. On the men’s side, Andrew Crechiolo ran 51.19 for 5th. Andrew also was an individual All-American in the Shot Put (9.18m, 5th). Billy (54.63) and Mike (71.30) also raced the quarter mile.
The men’s 4x100m team finished third, despite claiming to have sloppy hand-offs. Jeremy, Jared, Brian Durkin, and Tom all split between 10.41 and 11.51 (very rough hand timing) to run 44.11.
Tarah had an incredible 800m race, getting out hard, fading, and closing with a killer last 100 to run a huge personal best of 2:24 for 2nd. Val ran 2:30 for 7th, notching her 3rd of out 4 All-American finishes of the day, and 7th out of 8 overall, making her the most decorated Spartan in club history. Megan ran 2:43 in another heat. Despite getting tripped up and boxed in due to far too many people in the race, Bennett Prud’homme ran his best 800 ever of 1:58 and finished 7th. Ryan ran a respectable 2:07 and Billy ran 2:12 in the second heat. Paul and Austin came through in 2:16 and 2:20 in another heat.
As all this was going on, Alex Bonnen was competing in the men’s throws. After a disappointing 10th place finish in the Shot Put (7.50m), he rallied to throw well in the Discus and reset his own club record (20.14m).
Despite the fact that alumni Jeff Girbach was unable to compete because he was being official with the lap counter (and he’s graduated?), the men’s 3k Steeplechase was still exciting. The lack of practice with the steeple barriers did not stop Adam Terwillegar, Lucas, and Jonathan from all having solid races. Adam (10:48) and Lucas (11:09) moved up throughout the race and both were All-American, placing 7th and 9th for some unexpected points. Adam also broke Jeff’s legendary club record. Jonathan finished 18th in 11:54.
The women’s A 4x400m ran on tired legs and still placed 6th in 4:34. Tarah, Olivia, Christina, and Val had all run either 3 or 4 events beforehand. The B team of Steph, Megan, Kathryn, and Zina all ran good splits as well, timing in at 4:53. Simply put, the fast heat of the men’s 4x4 was filthy. Bennett, Tom, Andrew, and Brian all laid down nasty splits between 51 and 53 and finished 3rd, only to be bettered by an Indiana team that won the whole thing from the next heat. The B team of Jeremy, Jared, Phil, and Ben would have scored last year with their 3:42. The C team of Colin, Ryan, Billy, and Jonathan may have only run 3:52, but were part of the only C relay team in the entire meet. Now that’s cool.
At the end of the day, the women finished 4th and the men were 6th. Those are incredible finishes considering since there were only 10 Spartan women in Bloomington and the men barely scored any points last year! Though our team might not be as large or deep as Illinois, Penn State, or Michigan, we represented Michigan State very well and actually are quite well-rounded in the sprints, mid distance, distance, hurdles, and field events. I’m very proud of everyone’s efforts and last weekend ranks very high on the spectrum of my four years as a member of this club. Next year: podium.
- Colin Riley, 4/13/14
The men's 4x100 team of (left to right) Jared Emerson, Jeremy Bebber, Tom Eby, and Brian Durkin pose for a quick photo opportunity after their relay.
Steph Schmidt wins the women's 5k in a time of 17:57, leading from start to finish. Schmidt set a new personal best in the distance, along with a huge club record.