National Champs
Everything You Missed in Michigan
Never in my life have I been so annoyed to live on the East Coast. Why couldn’t I have magically found myself in Ohio, or Illinois, or some other vaguely midwestern location, a single-digit number of hours away from Olivet, Michigan? Or, better yet, why couldn’t gas just be 50 cents a gallon, my weekend be wide open, and my car be trustworthy enough for a spontaneous 24-hour round trip trek? Since I’m airing out my wishlist, I’d also like a pair of supershoes, a sub-6 mile PR, and a reliable line of defense against all this friggin pollen.
Such is life, I suppose. Maybe next year I’ll just embed myself in one of the Virginia teams, hitch a ride to Nats, and wind up with a sort of abridged Running With the Buffaloes1.
Still, even from so many states away, I was following the weekend’s results religiously. I sat around all day hitting “refresh” on the live results like a madman and tuning into NIRCA’s official livestream (my goal for next Nats is to convince NIRCA to let me help commentate the stream). And I’ll tell you what — I wasn’t disappointed!
There were a number of crazy performances last weekend, ranging from impressive to historic to just plain rad. I won’t be able to cover them all in just one issue, but if, at the end of this, you feel I’ve made a grave oversight in my reporting, drop it in the comments! What are substack comments for, if not shouting out your teammates and scolding negligent journalists?
It’s a Hokie World — We’re Just Living in It
In the days leading up to Nationals, I was asked on Instagram who I was betting on to take home the team victory. To win as a team, you need more than just a few fast individuals. Namely, you need these three things:
A WELL-ROUNDED TEAM — some schools excel primarily in distance events. Others show up in the scorebooks almost exclusively in the sprints. To be a real contender for a club title at Nationals, you’ve got to have firepower across all distances, as well as a solid roster of jumpers and throwers. A steepler or two doesn’t hurt, either.
THE NUMBERS — plenty of clubs in attendance had athletes of all disciplines, but unless you’ve got a few real renaissance-runners among your ranks, you’ve got to have the sheer numbers to rack up points.
YOUR STRONGEST ATHLETES, FIT & HEALTHY ON THE LINE — this one feels pretty obvious, but a number of clubs were missing some of their biggest names heading into Nationals weekend. Look, I get it — it’s still early in the Spring for a championship, hotels are expensive, and it can be hard to take a full weekend on the road in the middle of exam season. Heck, I spent the weekend on a couch in Williamsburg, Virginia — I’m in no place to be lecturing anyone (nor am I trying to). I’m just saying this played a definite role in the way the scores panned out last weekend.
With that in mind, I told the Instagram inquirer, my eyes were on one of the bigger Midwestern clubs, especially Michigan, Purdue, and Illinois. There was one other men’s team, however, who (despite a relatively quiet regular season) I thought had a real shot at a national title. When the dust finally settled, it turned out I was right. Virginia Tech, my so-called “sleeper pick,” was taking home the hardware. Some notable performances included Patrick Ream’s 100m victory (11.04), Harris Naseh’s new club record in the 5000m (15:14), and 1-2-2 finishes in the 4x 100m, 400m, and 800m relays.
VTRC runner Aidan McCarthy had perhaps the most inspiring series of races on the team. Starting the weekend with a heroic anchor leg in the 4x800m, McCarthy ran the fastest 800 of the weekend, cranking out a 1:54 and nearly catching the Michigan men in first place. Later that evening, McCarthy took third in the 1500m final, running 4:00.01 for a new club record. Apparently unsatisfied, he returned the next day to win the men’s 800m in 1:56.33 (followed closely by his teammate, Landon Scheper, in 1:57.63). Then he finished off the weekend with a 50-second leg in the 4x400m, helping his team to second place. That’s 3500 meters (2.17 miles) across 2 days at 3:59/mile pace. Somebody get this man a foam roller!
Illini Women Take Home the W
On the women’s side, Illinois closed out their already-strong season with a national title. Club sprinting’s most dynamic duo, Ari Afolabi and Ninawa Odicho, went 1-2 (respectively) in both the 100m and 200m dashes. Afolabi also took 2nd in the 100m hurdles, Odicho assisted the 4x400m team to a first-place finish, and both runners helped the Illinois women lock down a victory in the 4x100m relay. Katherine Vande Pol, meanwhile, took first in the 400m (1:01.95) and second in the 800m (2:27.98), and fourth in the 400m hurdles, immediately followed by her teammate Annie Brunton (who also took second in the steeplechase!). Khalia Mullin also took home a national title in the Triple Jump, leaping 9.87m to secure the victory.
The Illinois women may not have scored any points in the two true long-distance categories (1500m & 5000m), but with the degree to which they dominated literally every other category, they proved they don’t need distance runners anyway.
A Pittsburgh Threepeat
Several athletes this week took home multiple individual titles. I’ve already mentioned Ari Afolabi, your new 100m & 200m champ, but in the distance realm, it was Nick Wolk of Pitt who occupied most of the headlines. Hitting the track to defend his cross country title from the fall, Wolk ran both the 1500m and 5000m races. In the 1500m, Wolk led from the gun to the tape, taking the field out in a blistering 44-second first 300m2 and finishing in 3:54.223.
The next day, Wolk returned for the 5000m final. The field was deep (18 men ran under 15:30!), but nobody, ultimately, could come within 29 seconds of him. Wolk crossed the line in 14:31, nearly 200m ahead of Indiana’s Noah Scott (15:00) and Pitt teammate Jacob Montgomery (15:01).
Beware, club runners: In his post-race interview with NIRCA, Wolk (a grad student) mentioned he might be back for cross country next fall. If you needed some motivation to pound out the miles this summer, there it is.
Other Highlights
Michigan’s Anna Nagelhout took home a 5000m title last weekend, finishing ahead of runner-up Kayla Wartman (Wisconsin) by 22 seconds! In the 1500m final the next day, Nagelhout led from the gun. Lauren Murphy of Indiana, fresh off her victory in the 800m final, followed her stride-for-stride. Sitting right on Nagelhout’s shoulder for most of the race, Murphy took off with about 150m to go, kicking hard down the home straight to win in 4:48.89.
Jacob Fitzpatrick, Buffalo’s one-man army, took first in the 400m dash with a blistering 49.86. That makes him the only club runner to break 50 in the 400m this year! Fitzpatrick was followed closely by Tyler Klein of Illinois and former lead-holder Jaden Astle of Connecticut.
There aren’t a lot of club steeple specialists. To my knowledge, there are exactly zero (0). That didn’t stop a number of tough, intrepid, or just plain masochistic club athletes from trying their hands (legs?) at what is (arguably) track’s grittiest event. In the end, it was Michigan’s Zach Duval and Penn State’s Holly Passetti who took home the gold.
Speaking of toughness bordering on masochism, two VT runners — Mitchell Parvin and John Paul Williams — participated in what the VTRC calls the “Iron Mann Challenge.” To complete the Iron Mann, one must run every single event at nationals, and — here’s the kicker! — never get last. Williams made a valiant attempt but was forced to drop out after pulling a hammie on day 1. Parvin soldiered on, completing the challenge at the end of day two. Gentlemen, I salute you both.
Running With the Hokies doesn’t have quite the same ring to it though, does it?
When one of the NIRCA livestream announced this unofficial split mid-race, one of the others audibly chuckled. Their meaning was clear: “Geeeeeeeeeeeeez.”
In the heat prior, Tim Purcell had set a new Pitt club record with a 4:10 1500m. Though his record may not have stood for even a full 10 minutes, he ran a helluva race!
i’m flattered to receive a mention in this article 🥰
H2P H2P H2P