Above & Beyond
Your 2022 Indoor Champs
It was, just as we knew it would be, quite a week for club running! I’ve spent the last seven days wading through the statistics, and though I haven’t been able to track down all the results (send them to me here!), I’ve done my very best to get my hands on as many as possible. NIRCA has no indoor championship meet, but as I said last week, this weekend came pretty damn close. So, with an entire indoor season’s statistics laid out in front of me, I have taken it upon myself to name club running’s 2022 indoor track “champions.” There was tight competition in pretty much every category, and narrowing things down to just two runners in each distance turned out to be quite the undertaking (I’ll get more into my process later), but I’ve settled on my picks. Lacking a championship race to legitimize these titles, I’m open to argument. Excoriation, even! Give me a piece of your mind in the comments, let me know who you think earned a #1 spot. Let the discourse begin!
But first, a recap.
Last Weekend: A Brief Overview
Illinois took both the men’s and women’s team titles at the Illinois Club Relays on Saturday — that’s a thirteenpeat, for those of you keeping score at home! A real who’s who of Midwestern club running (Cincinnatti’s Nicky Alexander, the second-fastest man in both the mile and the 5000m, being perhaps the most notable exception), several meet records fell over the course of the day’s events.
The Illinois Track Club’s relay teams set meet records in the 4x200m (men’s & women’s) and the 4x800m (women’s)
Claire Beigalski of Wisconsin smashed the meet record in the 60m hurdles by over half a second
Eldon Warner of Illinois knocked down the meet record (and his own league lead) with a 4:13 mile
Illinois’ Tayla Schwarz threw 11.29m in the shotput to break the old meet record by nearly a full meter
Meanwhile, Purdue’s Adam Wiatr defended his own record (though not quite breaking it) in the 60m, Cincinnatti’s George Patil cleared 6’3” in the high jump to take first, and Michigan absolutely attacked the long-distance events. In her first race of the season, Ari Afolabi of the Illinois Track Club barely out-leaned her teammate (and RS favorite to win) to take 1st in the 60m dash by just .01 seconds before taking 2nd in the 60m hurdles in what would have been a meet record, had Beigalski not run even faster.
The race that I most enjoyed personally, however, was the 4x400m. Teams from every school in attendance donned different costumes, clutched their oversized prop-batons, and toed the line for what must have been one of the most visually fascinating races of the year.
See the full meet results for the Illinois Club Relays here.
On Sunday, the Harvard Club Invitational saw some fantastic racing here on the East Coast. Full disclosure — I’m still working on acquiring the full results for this meet, but my sources up in Beantown were keeping me updated on the highlights. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping race of the meet was the women’s 60m dash, which saw five women under 8.32 (the previous league best set by Illinois’ Odicho) and four under 8.28 (the new mark set by Afolabi the day before). It was Northeastern’s Katie Billman, however, who finally took the win in the 7.99 — the first sub-8 60m run by a female club athlete this year.
Even as indoor season came to its dramatic end, outdoor season has quietly started picking up steam. The Capital Relays (hosted by American University), the Lee Turner Invitational (hosted by UNC-Pembroke) and the Oregon State Club Relays made for fast times coast to coast.
AND NOW
YOUR 2022 REASONABLY SPEEDY INDOOR CHAMPIONS
As I said, there’s no official club championship race for indooor track. Still, through careful examination of the last 3 months of race results, I’ve settled on a mens and womens “champion” for each event. My criteria for this descision focused on three components of each runner’s season:
Times — While times were not the primary factor I considered in assembling this list (i.e. the athlete who has run the fastest time of the season is not automatically the champ), all the runners taken into consideration for this list were among the top few times of the season.
Consistency — This one speaks for itself. A consistently fast runner will place higher than an occasionally really fast one.
Competitive Placement — This is the big one. Even if there was no official championship race, most of the top contenders for each event have had the opportunity to race each other at once. How they fared against each other, ultimately, is what mattered most for this ranking.
60m
Men’s: Adam Wiatr — Purdue
Women’s: Katie Billman — Northeastern
This one should speak for itself. The only guy to run under 7 and the only woman to run under 8 — both undefeated in the club world.
60m Hurdles
Men’s: Will Barhite — Michigan
Women’s: Claire Beigalski — Wisconsin
Once again - two consistently dominant athletes who, when it came down to it, placed first among their speedy peers.
400m
Men’s: Jaden Astle — UCONN
Women’s: Ninawa Odicho — Illinois
Jaden Astle’s 51.05 against club competition at the Happy Valley Invitational sealed his place as number #1, and Illinois sprint star Ninawa Odicho’s consistent performance — not to mention her league-leading time — earned her a championship spot.
800m
Mens’s: Nathan Nohr — Michigan
Women’s: Lauren Murphy — Indiana
None of the fastest 800m times were run at club events, so competition played less of a role for this one. Therefore, the two fastest times (both by runners who’ve proven themselves dangerous across several distances) took the top spots.
Mile
Men’s: Eldon Warner — Illinois
Women’s: Thea Johnson — Michigan
Eldon Warner’s back-to-back 4:19 & 4:13 mile races made this an easy choice. All of the top contenders on the women’s side (Johnson, Anna Nagelhout, and Indiana’s Lauren Murphy) raced each other in Illinois last Saturday and Thea Johnson came out the victor by over 9 seconds. Johnson has also run the league’s leading mile time in 2022, a 5:06 from mid-February.
3000m
Men’s: Alex Wright — Purdue
Women’s: Anna Nagelhout — Michigan
This was a tough one. The men’s 3000m came down to three athletes: Lincoln Johnston (Michigan), Bo Shepherd (Michigan), and Alex Wright (Purdue). All three are fast, all three are consistent. At the Club Relays, however, it was wright who emerged victorious, outkicking Shepherd and Johnston and cementing his place as the champ.
Nagelhout, who finished second in the Club Relays mile, finished first in the 3000m (just ahead of Johnson) and lowered her own club lead by 3 seconds.
5000m
Men’s: Bo Shepherd — Michigan
Women’s: Anna Nagelhout — Michigan
This decision was far easier. Shepherd, having run 14:56 and consistently placing well in 5000m races this season, and Nagelhout, the only club woman under 18 minutes this year, established themselves firmly as the leagues’ most consistent long-distance specialists.
