Washburn track and field opened up its 2022 slate of action Jan. 15 with the Washburn Rust Buster in the Washburn Indoor Athletic Facility. The meet will consist of 56 teams and over 1,000 competitors across all of the events.

The Ichabods entered the track and field season after the women’s team was selected to finish 8th and the men 9th in the MIAA Indoor Preseason Coaches Poll.

Washburn started off with strong performances in field events on both sides. Three men got top-ten finishes in the weight throw, led by junior Mitch Miller, who finished in second place with a throw of 16.09 meters. Sophomores Patrick Altenor and Logan Ayers took fourth and ninth place respectively.

On the women’s side in the long jump the Ichabods finished one-two, with freshman Alyssa Hutcherson finishing in second and senior Nikki Kraaijeveld in first. The two finished with jumps of 5.28 and 5.41 meters respectively. On the men’s side sophomore Pau Borillo-Febrer finished fourth with a jump of 6.64 meters.

In the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries sophomores Borillo-Febrer and Romain Henry qualified on the men’s side after finishing in third and first place respectively. On the women’s side sophomore Taylor Grasser got in after finishing in sixth place.

In the finals, Henry stayed on top, finishing first with a time of 8.13 seconds and Borillo-Febrer was not far behind, finishing in 8.55 seconds to place second.

“I am happy to be back here after the big break of four weeks. I didn’t practice as much as I wanted, so it’s good to be back, decent time, not the one I wanted but still good,” said Henry, who was happy with the team’s performance in the event. “It’s really nice because Pau is my training partner … it’s really nice and we push each other so it’s really good.”

Grasser also improved from her preliminary placement, jumping up to third place after a 10.28 second time.

The 60-meter dash was also successful for Washburn, with sophomore Isabella Hohl and Hutcherson qualifying on the women’s side with third and sixth place finishes. For the men, sophomore Wyatt Heiman finished eighth to claim the last spot in the finals.

Another first place finish was claimed, this time by Hohl who set the record for the fastest time in the meet’s history in the event to win, finishing in 7.96 seconds.

“I actually had COVID last week so to come back from recovering from COVID and then the first week back from Christmas break I was pretty happy, only .04 from my PR,” Hohl said. “I feel like I am making good progress so far and am excited to see where the year takes me.”

Hutcherson also finished in seventh place on the women’s side, with a time of 7.96 seconds and Heiman stayed in eighth after a 7.08 second run.

Heiman was involved again as the longer sprints began, finishing with a team-best time of 22.38 seconds in the 200-meter dash to claim sixth place. On the women’s side in the 200 Kraaijeveld and Darian Hillebert finished back-to-back in eighth and ninth place respectively.

The only competitor for the Ichabods in the 400 meter dash was freshman Jacob Herr, who finished in eighth place with a 51.25 second run.

The 600-yard run was a successful event for both teams. Henry was the men’s team’s only entry and he finished with a time of 1:12.76, good for second in the event and his second top two placement on the day.

“It was funny because it was my first 600 in my life … but I am happy, it was like a discovery for me, really nice run and I know I have more,” Henry said.

On the women’s side, senior Chia Okoro made the most of her only individual event of the day, finishing in first place after running a 1:28.33 time. Also in the top-10 was senior Lyndsay Stinson who finished in seventh place.

“The sprinters and hurdlers did well for us … they were a strong group today,” said head coach Cameron Babb. “That was a group that we probably beat up pretty good this past week but they still came out and ran.”

Off the track, the shot-put event featured four top-10 finishes for Washburn. Sophomore Je’Shon Edwards finished in tenth place. Freshman Jaden Magana and Altenor finished in seventh and eighth place respectively while Miller took third place with a top throw of 14.15 meters.

The Ichabods got two top-six finishes in the pole vault as well, on the women’s side senior Natalie Lanman placed sixth with a height of 3.50 meters. On the men’s side junior Zac Chandler reached a top height of 4.85 meters to finish fourth.

Washburn only entered one athlete into the high jump competition and senior Tom Haug came through with a second-place finish after narrowly losing a jump-off for first place with a height of two meters.

The final event of the meet was the women’s 4×400 meter relay where the team of Okoro, Stinson, freshman Katelyn Jones and Kraaijeveld finished in first place with a time of 3:59.95.
“It was a good group that won the four by four. So all around I think the sprinters came out and did well,” Babb said.

In all the team won five total events and had 17 total top-five finishes.

“I thought we did pretty good for what we had the kids do in the last week,” Babb said. “We still had some pretty solid performances, we still had some kids win, we had a few PR’s out there, nothing that will really light the world on fire but that’s always what we expect this time of year.”

The Ichabods will stay at home next week as they host the All-Kansas Invite, Saturday, Jan. 22.

Full Results
Women’s
Pole Vault
Natalie Lanman – 6th place 3.5 meters
Tassilyn Bolin – NH
Weight Throw
JahnAsia Anderson – 14th place 12.01 meters
Tyler Smith – 15th place 11.37 meters
60m Hurdles Preliminary
Taylor Grasser – 6th place 10.72 seconds (Qualified)
60m Hurdles Finals
Taylor Grasser – 3rd place 10.28 seconds
60m Dash Preliminary
Isabella Hohl – 3rd place 7.81 seconds (Qualified)
Alyssa Hutcherson – 6th place 7.91 seconds (Qualified)
Darian Hillebert – 18th place 8.28 seconds
60m Dash Finals
Isabella Hohl – 1st place 7.68 seconds
Alyssa Hutcherson – 7th place 7.96 seconds
Long Jump
Nikki Kraaijeveld – 1st place 5.41 meters
Alyssa Hutcherson – 2nd place 5.28 meters
Taylor Grasser – 8th place 5.02 meters
One Mile Run
Stacy Briggs – 19th place 5:55.26
600 Yard Run
Chia Okoro – 1st place 1:28.33
Lyndsay Stinson – 7th place 1:32.69
Katelyn Jones – 11th place 1:33.68
200m Dash
Nikki Kraaijeveld – 8th place 26.62
Darian Hillebert – 9th place 26.65
3000m Run
Megan Allacher 20th place 11:23.40
Men’s
Long Jump
Pau Borillo-Febrer – 4th place 6.64 meters
Pole Vault
Zac Chandler – 4th place 4.85 meters
60m Hurdles Preliminary
Romain Henry – 1st place 8.22 seconds (Qualified)
Pau Borillo-Febrer – 3rd place 8.57 seconds (Qualified)
60m Hurdles Finals
Romain Henry – 1st place 8.13 seconds
Pau Borillo-Febrer – 2nd place 8.55 seconds
60m Dash Preliminary
Wyatt Heiman – 8th place 7.04 seconds (Qualified)
Connor Last – 11th place 7.07 seconds
Hunter Hess – 21st place 7.28 seconds
60m Dash Finals
Wyatt Heiman – 8th place 7.08 seconds
One Mile Run
James Gillin – 49th place 5:07.90
Weight Throw
Mitch Miller – 2nd place 16.09 meters
Patrick Altenor – 4th place 14.86 meters
Logan Ayers – 9th place 13.56 meters
Je’Shon Edwards – 11th place 12.02 meters
Jaden Magana – 12th place 11.96 meters
600 Yard Run
Romain Henry – 2nd place 1:12.76
400m Dash
Jacob Herr – 8th place 51.25 seconds
200m Dash
Wyatt Heiman – 6th place 22.38 seconds
Hunter Hess – 18th place 23.11 seconds
High Jump
Tom Haug – 2nd place 2.00 meters
Shot Put
Mitch Miller – 3rd place 14.15 meters
Jaden Magana – 7th place 12.56 meters
Patrick Altenor – 8th place 12.36 meters
Je’Shon Edwards – 10th place 12.04 meters

Edited by Alyssa Storm
Edited by Ellie Walker