This past weekend we competed at the NIRCA Track and Field Championships at Olivet University. The Men took 6th and the women took 11th. We had a ton of individual performances worth writing home about!

 

I’ll start on the track:

 

Women’s 100m:

Melis Ayhan took 7th at the meet with a very quick time of 12.90! This mark is just off of her time that she set at Big Blue and would be good enough for second fastest in PURC history, however she already holds this spot!

 

Men’s 100m:

Toju Maku made the finals and placed 2nd in the meet, running a time of 10.84! This would be good enough for second in PURC history but his name is already etched into the top slot of the record book!

 

Men’s 110m Hurdles:

JD Sever ran a 16.66 on his way to claiming 8th overall at the meet and scoring a valuable point for PURC!

 

Women’s 200m:

Melis Ayhan made her second finals on the weekend in the 200m dash and ran a 26.49 to take third place overall!

 

Men’s 200m:

Toju Maku also made two finals appearances taking 8th overall with a time of 23.27. However, in the prelims Toju BROKE THE PURC RECORD with a time of 22.38!

 

Women’s 400m:

Finlay Donovan ran a 1:04.62 to take 27th at the meet, and 5th in PURC history! Melis Ayhan nearly broke her own PURC record with a 1:00.59 as she claimed 8th at the meet! Great showing from the 400m squad!

 

Men’s 400m:

Tyler Tholen ran a 51.04 which was good for a NEW PURC RECORD by a tenth of a second! Tyler ended up placing 14th in a highly competitive 400m! (speed was very present on the track)

 

Women’s 400m Hurdles:

Megan Graf fought her way into the PURC recordbooks taking 5th all time with a 1:20.3, which was good for 18th overall. Finlay Donovan took 8th overall at the meet with a 1:13.18, which is just off of her own PURC record. Gutsy performances by the hurdles team!

 

Men’s 400m Hurdles:

JD Severs took 4th overall and BROKE his own PURC RECORD with a blistering time of 55.69!

 

Men’s 800m:

Joey Redle took 13th overall with a time of 1:57.92 which bettered his current fifth place time in the PURC recordbook! He still holds the fifth spot!

 

Men’s 1500m:

In a very exciting and fast race Jack Graham became a NIRCA NATIONAL CHAMPION with a time of 3:52.03 which also breaks the PURC record! Jack was closely followed by Joey Redle who took third overall with a 3:54.43, moving him into second all time for PURC! Electric race from our 1500m boys, I can’t wait to see them run it back next year!

 

Men’s 3k Steeplechase:

Ryan San Juan ran a 10:38.57 claiming 27th at the meet and 5th ALL TIME for PURC! Ben Habeski ran a 10:14.75 as he reclaimed his spot in the top 5 taking THIRD ALL TIME while also placing 16th at the meet!

 

Women’s 5k:

Cara Karmolinski took 12th at the meet with a time of 18:20.56 which is better than her previous entry into the PURC recordbooks! She remains the third fastest 5k runner in PURC history!

 

Men’s 5k:

Jack Graham returned to the track and picked up right where he left off, putting himself in the fight for a National Championship. In the end, he placed 5th overall with a time of 14:55.81, which is good for a NEW PURC RECORD!

 

Women’s 4x100m Relay: 

Sarah Prokop, Camille Kristinik, Caroline Ebert, and Sarah Graf ran a 58.53 which puts them 4th in the PURC recordbooks!

 

Men’s 4x100m Relay:

Vasan Normany, JD Sever, Gideon Nichols, and Russell Robertson took ninth at the meet with a time of 44.09 which puts them in second ALL TIME for PURC! Toju Maku, Rhys Bulham, Tyler Tholen, and Gui Camara ran a 42.90 placing 5th at the meet and BREAKING THE PURC RECORD!

 

Men’s 4x400m Relay:

Russell Robertson, JD Sever, Tyler Tholen, and Bryan Louie ran a 3:24.6 to claim 6th at the meet and took the NEW PURC RECORD!

 

Women’s 4x800m Relay: 

Camille Kristinik, Megan Graf, Ava Geiger, and Finlay Donovan ran a 10:36.56 to claim 8th at the meet and 5th ALL TIME FOR PURC!

 

That is all for the track, now we move onto the field:

Women’s Long Jump:

Alyssa Germain improved her own PURC record jumping 4.84m on route to claiming 9th at the meet!

 

Women’s High Jump:

Caroline Ebert jumped 1.51m and claimed 4th in the Nation, claiming valuable points for the team!

 

Women’s Triple Jump:

Alyssa Germain took 8th at the meet with a jump of 9.82 meters, which is better than her current mark in the PURC Recordbook! She remains second all time for PURC!

 

Women’s Discus:

Megan Graf threw 17.32m taking 30th at the meet and claiming a NEW PURC RECORD! She beat her previous record by 0.34 meters!

 

Men’s Discus:

Andre Tse threw 39.37m and placed 8th at the meet, and bettered his previous second place mark in the PURC recordbooks! Andre remains 2nd all time for PURC!

 

Now for some additional shoutouts:

 

Half-Marathon:

We had two participants in the half this year! First Rachel Schwab ran a 1:47:13 which is good enough for 5th ALL TIME for PURC! Sam Bibeau also ran the half in a time of 1:17:31 which was a very impressive half-marathon debut! Congrats to both of our Half-Marathon runners!

 

IRONMAN:

We had FIVE IRONMAN finishers this year, which is the most ever in a single year and the first year that we even had more than one finisher! Huge shoutout and congratulations to Alex Appiah, Connor Bossong, Hayden Clarke, Jack Feehan, and Charles Tompkins! They even spiced things up with a couple of heat wins! Great performance by all of you!

​

-Hayden Nagel​

​

And a very special thank you to Rachel Schwab and Devansh Shah for taking such wonderful photos of our athletes!