Washburn kicked off its second ever Washburn Open Jan. 28 beginning the two-day meet that included 65 teams and a record 1,476 entries in the Indoor Athletic Facility. The meet marked the third straight week of competition for the Ichabods.
“Those first couple of meets are just kind of to get your feet wet and figure some things out. And then when we get to this point of the season, we start to really zone in on what we need to be doing,” said head coach Cameron Babb.
The meet began with the opening day of the men’s heptathlon where both of Washburn’s competitors, sophomore Pau Borillo-Febrer and senior Logan Stock, stayed competitive with places of second and fourth respectively through the first four events.
Borillo-Febrer came out on top in the long-jump portion with a leap of 6.94 meters, earning him 799 points in the event. After day one Borillo-Febrer’s 2834 points put him only 47 points out of first place while Stock followed closely behind with 2684 points.
The Ichabods were busy in the men’s weight throwing event with eight total competitors. On the day half of them finished in the top-10, including top-5 finishes from junior Braden Rose and senior Sam Stranathan who finished fourth and third respectively.
The top performance of the day for Washburn came on the women’s side in the 600 yard run from senior Chia Okoro who finished in first place in a facility record time of 1:24.10.
The win for Okoro is her second in the event this season, needing only two attempts to reach that number. Freshman Katelyn Jones was also successful in the event, finishing in fifth place.
The women’s side got two more fifth place finishes, the first coming in the weight throw from freshman Paola Castaldi, with a top throw of 14.81 meters. The second was in the triple jump where freshman Alyssa Hutcherson set a new Washburn record with a distance of 11.35 meters, earning her fifth place.
Finally to finish day one, on the men’s side of the open high jump, sophomore Kyler Kaniper leaped into fifth place with a top mark of 1.80 meters.
“I think we had a really good day one, this time of year you start to see kids putting some things together, starting to get in shape a little bit more and so we saw a couple of school records and a handful of personal bests go down,” Babb said. “That’s what we saw today, and the kids performed well.”
Day two proved to be just as intense as the first, beginning with some of the field events. Senior Tom Haug came third in the high jump with a height of 2.00 meters. For the pole vaulting portion junior Zac Chandler came in third place, clearing the bar at 4.90 meters reaching the NCAA D2 provisional mark of 4.78 meters. Coming in first place for the long jump was freshman Conner Last with a distance of 7.27 meters, which also put him over the NCAA D2 mark.
The Ichabods had three entries on the men’s side of the 3000 meter run and were paced by sophomore David Kibet coming in 11th with a career-best time of 8:35.47. Kibet was pleased with his time since he jumped out to an early lead in his heat and remained far ahead of his opponents the entire race.
“I was just going with my time. I said, ‘Ok, I’m just going to push it’,” Kibet said. “I did extremely well, that’s what I wanted to do.”
The women’s 3000 meter race featured a deep pool of competition. Out of a group of seven entries for Washburn, junior Lily Johnson was the lone top-10 finisher, placing 6th with a time of 10:06.24.
Sophomore Romain Henry secured fourth place in the men’s 60-meter hurdle preliminary with a time of 8.19, as well as fifth place in the finals with a time of 8.11. In the women’s side of the event, senior Nikki Kraaijeveld took fifth overall in the finals with a time of 9.01 seconds.
Sophomore Isabella Hohl dominated the women’s 60-meter dash preliminaries by placing first with a time of 7.69 and second in the finals with a time of 7.62. Even with these placements, Hohl has plans to push herself harder the rest of the season.
“I still have a lot to work on,” Hohl said. “This should place me third in the conference and seventeenth in the nation, but I still have a lot of growth. I can do more.”
The women’s 400 meter dash gave Okoro another chance to show her athletic skill, and she didn’t disappoint. Okoro came in fourth place with a time of 56.79. She remained neck in neck with her opponents at the end, pushing hard towards the finish line and snuck in under the NCAA D2 provisional time of 56.80.
“Yesterday she broke the facility record, the school record in the 600 and today she comes back and breaks the school record in the 400. She’s done great work,” Babb said.
Babb praised the team for their hard work, but has some ideas on how he can improve their scores for the meet coming up next Friday and Saturday at the Bearcat Invitational.
“Overall, it was a good meet, but I have to press a little bit more out of some of them,” Babb said.

Day One Results
Men’s
Weight Throw
Sam Stranathan – 3rd place – 16.40 meters
Braden Rose – 4th place – 16.00 meters
Mitch Miller – 6th place – 15.79 meters
Logan Ayers – 7th place – 15.60 meters
Jaden Magana – 12th place – 13.65 meters
Justice Akinmoladun – 14th place – 13.38 meters
Patrick Altenor – 16th place – 13.23 meters
Je’Shon Edwards – 18th place – 13.01 meters
60 Meter Dash Fri Qualifying
Teondre Carter – 43rd place – 7.37 seconds
200 Meter Dash
Wyatt Heiman – 29th place – 22.50 seconds
Hunter Hess – 35th place – 22.65 seconds
Jacob Herr – 53rd place – 23.04 seconds
Josh Hopkins – 68th place – 23.42 seconds
Giovani Reinerio – 76th place – 23.68 seconds
High Jump Fri. Open Se
Kyler Kaniper – 3rd place – 1.80 meters
Heptathlon (4/8 Events)
Pau Borillo-Febrer – 2nd place – 2834 points
Logan Stock – 4th place – 2684 points
Women’s
60 Meter Dash Fri. Qualifying
Darian Hillebert – 12th place – 8.01 seconds
600 Yard Run
Chia Okoro – 1st place – 1:24.10
Katelyn Jones – 5th place – 1:29.25
200 Meter Dash
Isabella Hohl – 5th place – 25.18 seconds
Darian Hillebert – 24th place – 26.15 seconds
Lyndsay Stinson – 34th place – 26.67 seconds
Triple Jump
Alyssa Hutcherson – 5th place – 11.35 meters
Weight Throw
Paola Castaldi – 5th place – 14.81 meters
Tyler Smith – 21st place – 11.69 meters
JahnAsia Anderson – 23rd place – 11.55 meters
Day Two Results
Men’s
High Jump
Tom Haug – 3rd place – 2.00 meters
Pole Vault
Zac Chandler – 3rd place – 4.90 meters
Long Jump
Conner Last – 1st place – 7.27 meters
Josh Hopkins – N/A – Foul
Shot Put
Branden Rose – 6th place – 14.63 meters
Mitch Miller – 9th place – 14.25 meters
Jaden Magana – 17th place – 12.91 meters
Je’Shon Edwards – 21st place – 12.05 meters
Justice Akinmoladun – 27th place – 11.34 meters
Sam Stranathan – N/A – Foul
3000 Meter Run
David Kibet – 11th place – 8:35.47
Gustav Morch – 14th place – 8:45.57
Nick Petrella – 32nd place – 9:23.79
60 Meter Hurdles – Preliminaries
Romain Henry – 4th place – 8.19 (Qualified)
60 Meter Dash – Preliminaries
Wyatt Heiman – 19th place – 7.05
60 Meter Hurdles – Finals
Romain Henry – 5th place – 8.11
One Mile Run
Nathan Gray – 22nd place – 4:21.22
Gabriel Chinya – 24th place – 4:22.59
Cooper Griffin – 41st place – 4:37.85
400 Meter Dash
Romain Henry – 12th place – 49.638 – 49.64
Jacob Herr – 14th place – 49.78
Hunter Hess – 35th place – 51.86
800 Meter Run
Gabriel Chinya – 14th place – 1:58.08
Kael Ecord – 32nd place – 2:01.99
Troy Grabert – 52nd place – 2:09.75
Women’s
Pole Vault
Tassilyn Bolin – 2nd place – 3.50 meters
Long Jump
Nikki Kraaijeveld – 10th place – 5.19 meters
3000 Meter Run
Lily Johnson – 6th place – 10:06.24
Eve Weber – 13th place – 10:56.58
Verena Vesely – 18th place – 11:06.74
Megan Allacher – 20th place – 11:18.54
Stacy Briggs – 21st place – 11:22.18
Kelsie Dent – 22nd place – 11:27.39
Luz Lopez-Gonzalez – 23rd place – 11:34.90
60 Meter Hurdles – Preliminaries
Nikki Kraaijeveld – 7th place – 9.13 (Qualified)
Kylie Ray – 11th place – 9.69
60 Meter Dash Preliminaries
Isabella Hohl – 1st place – 7.69 (Qualified)
Alyssa Hutcherson – 22nd place – 7.941 – 7.95
Darian Hillebert – 24th place – 7.995 – 8.00
60 Meter Hurdles – Finals
Nikki Kraaijeveld – 5th place- 9.01
60 Meter Dash – Finals
Isabella Hohl – 2nd place – 7.618 – 7.62
One Mile Run
Dulce Ayala Chanez – 11th place – 5:30.54
Eve Weber – 15th place – 5:35.38
Verena Vesely – 16th place – 5:35.48
Elsa Cozine – 24th place – 5:53.77
400 Meter Dash
Chia Okoro – 4th place – 56.79
Lyndsay Stinson – 11th place – 59.47
Katelyn Jones – 17th place – 1:00.86
800 Meter Run
Keely Wagner 19th place – 2:30.14
Edited By: Simran Shrestha, Katrina Johnson