NIRCA Track Nationals Recap

I’m assuming that you’re all thinking to yourselves, “what on earth is NIRCA?”  NIRCA stands for National Intercollegiate Running Club Association and was created so that runners like myself could continue running competitively even though they might not be fast enough to run at a D1 level.  This years national championships did not disappoint as NIRCA records fell all across the board (mainly because Indiana’s team is ridiculous, but we’ll get to that later).  I’ll just run through each event and give the highlights.

4x800

Possibly the most exciting event of the day, the 4x800 went out fast.  Every team split roughly 1:59-2:00 on the first leg, literally every team.  Indiana and Illinois were out front as expected going into the 2nd leg but all 12 teams were still within striking distance.  A big move on the 2nd leg by my teammate Tom Krajnak put Ohio State back in contention after falling off slightly after a rough handoff.  Another crowded exchange pushed Illinois and Michigan a few spots back and opened up the door for Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio State to duke it out over the final 800.  John Darmody, also known as “The Biggest Troll in NIRCA”, dropped a 1:54 anchor leg to lead Indiana to a NIRCA record 7:51.73.  Wisconsin followed in 2nd in 7:55, just ahead of Ohio State in 7:58.  North Allegheny alum Mike Becich anchored Stanford to a 4th place finish in 8:00.07 and Michigan rounded out the top 5 in 8:04.7.  The top three teams all broke the previous NIRCA record of 7:59.9.

5000

Come the 5000, Indiana continued to dominate the distance events.  Jake Baranowski led wire to wire to take the gold in 14:47.  His teammate Ryan Wells, the reigning NIRCA Cross Country champion, made a big push in the closing laps to take second in 15:05, just beating out Chris Robertson of Iowa State (15:12).  It should also be noted that Wells ran the race in cut off jean shorts.  NIRCA is pretty lax on uniform rules.  15:24 rounded out the top 9 All American spots with Indiana sneaking another points scorer in (Andrew Jankowski 15:24).

1500

John Darmody returned a few hours after his 4x800 win to break another NIRCA record.  A big move with 600 meters to go strung out the field and no one was able to hang on to Darmody as he blazed a 60 second final 400.  Darmody crossed the line in 3:55.02, beating out the Purdue duo of Nate Veldt and Ryan Kearns who ran 3:56.84 and 3:58.61 respectively.  4:06.4 rounded out the top 10, with Indiana taking 3 of the top 10 spots.  Pennsbury alum Connor Harriman, now running for Stanford, doubled back from the 4x8 to run 4:36.

800

I bet you can’t guess who won the 800.  John Darmody?  Yeah.  Did he break his 3rd NIRCA record of the day?  Yeah.  Was anybody remotely close to him?  Shockingly yes.  North Allegheny alumni Mike Becich ran stride for stride with Darmody but the Indiana runner proved too much for Becich to handle.  Darmody crossed the line in 1:54.69, taking down Becich who ran 1:55.6.  A total of 13 runners broke 2:00 and helped to make the 800 one of the most exciting races of the day.

Half Marathon

One really cool thing about NIRCA is the inclusion of a half marathon championship for those runners who may be better at longer distances.  Well, Indiana won that one too.  Niko Jeftich ran 1:09:39 to defeat Kansas’ Ben Wellwood by just under a minute.  My teammate Jack Schlabig snagged an All American spot, finishing 6th in 1:13:02.  North Allegheny’s Tim Appman, running for Penn State, took 9th in 1:15:56.  

What did we learn from 2015 NIRCA Track and Half Marathon Championships?  If you want to be a part of a national championship squad, run club for Indiana.

-Evan Hatton

AKA “The Kid Who Fell 25 Feet From the Water Pit”