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              After a spring break filled with road trips, naps and procrastination twenty-three of UMD Club Running’s^Tm finest descended upon American University. They proceeded to dominate events ranging from a 100m race walk to the 5k.

Those who had been to this infamous track before recounted stories of iced over turns while the newcomers admired its odd, rectangular shape. After paying the $150 meet fee in an unorganized wad of fives and ones, it was time to get down to business for the Terrapins.

The women’s 5k went off first featuring a 20:43 second place finish for Julia Heiges and a 21:29 fourth place finish for Christina Higgins. This strong start for Maryland was followed by the men’s 5k. Mitch Welter finished second in 16:20 while wearing trainers. Ryun Anderson can be loosely quoted as saying, “Mitch totally would have thrashed that Georgetown guy (the first-place finisher) if he was wearing spikes and not on pacing duties”. Matt Laskowski, Welter’s pacee, finished third in 16:36. Also in the field was Adolfo Blassino who shocked spectators with a mid-race wardrobe change. Justin Turner (18:19) and Elliot Hayes (19:47) helped close out a strong Maryland showing in the 5k.

The 100m dash featured yet another Maryland podium finish by Harry Rentzeperis who placed second in allegedly 12.1. However, multiple spectators clocked him between 11.6 and 11.8.

Luanne Zimmerman placed third in the women’s 1500m with a strong 5:20. Maddie Mandich absolutely obliterated the second heat in a time of 6:00, finishing eighth overall and scoring a point for the Terrapins. On the men’s side, Mitch Welter fulfilled Ryun’s prophecy by spiking up and thrashing some poor Georgetown guy in a time of 4:22 (Meet Record). Niko Fedkin placed fourth in 4:31. David Brown finished sixth overall from the slowest heat in his first ever track race as he destroyed competition from his own heat, the entire second heat, and much of the first heat in 4:38. Christian Jefferson Ruiz ran 5:09.3.

Maryland took the win in the men’s 4×100 in 46.5 (Meet Record). A star studded team of Clayton Buckman, Matt Patsy, Kareem McDavid, and Evan Flickinger proved to be far superior to the rest of the field as they comfortably won despite some interesting handoffs.

In the women’s 400m, Hannah Drilling placed second in 1:09. On the men’s side Clayton Buckman ran a blistering 50.3 (Meet Record)… ON A RECTANGULAR TRACK. Matt Patsy followed in fifth with an inspirational 57.7. Two of UMD Club Running’s^Tm resident Broke Boys^Tm – Nate Lieske and Jack Wavering – were observed sprinting back and forth across the turf (Meet Record) as if their injuries were momentarily cured during these riveting events.

Kate Eckart blew away the competition in the women’s 800m in 2:28.3 (Meet Record) after opening a sizeable gap on the rest of the field within the first 200m. Maddie Mandich doubled back from the 1500 in a strong 2:51.4 good for seventh. Konrad Shire continued Maryland’s domination in the 800m with a decisive victory in 2:05.9 (Meet Record). He was with the pack through 400m, but after hearing a 64s split for his first lap, he dropped an audible F-bomb and proceeded to humiliate the competition with a strong last 400.

Hannah Drilling returned from her second place finish in the 400m and upgraded to a first place finish in the 200m (31.2) (Meet Record). The men finished 1-2-3 with Harry Rentzeperis (23.4) (Meet Record), Evan Flickinger (23.8), and Kareem McDavid (23.8) to cement overall Maryland domination in the sprint events.

The women’s 4x400m took a comfortable win in 4:47.4 (Meet Record) featuring Higgins, Heiges, Eckart, and Zimmerman. Kate Eckart buried any hopes second place Georgetown had left with an impressive 63 second anchor leg. The men also won in 3:47.0 (Meet Record) with Shire, Laskowski, Brown, and Buckman beating second place George Mason by over 10 seconds.

The women’s team placed second with a score of 61. The men’s team won the meet with a score of 110, more than doubling the score of the second-place team.

The 100m race walk resulted in a disappointing second place finish for a sling-free Nate Lieske. However, multiple spectators have reported that the victor hailing from UMass Lowell initiated an illegal skipping motion in the latter half of the race. Sources say Nate is content with his race-walking career and is playing with thoughts of retirement. However, no official decision has been made.

Overall, Capital Relays was a glorious day for UMD Club Running^Tm. Nine meet records were set, and the Terrapins frequented the podium.