Elmhurst University women's track team wins first-ever conference title
Led by a legendary individual performance, the Elmhurst University women's track team accomplished something the program has never done before, winning a conference championship.
The emotion on the faces of coach Jordan Bartolazzi and the Elmhurst University athletes says it all.
"It was awesome. It felt like eight years in the making really," Bartolazzi said after the team won their first-ever College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin title
"It was really great. I've been here since a freshman. My freshman year we actually lost by three points, and so finally being able to get that win was great," long jumper and triple jumper Vanessa Carr said.
The Blue Jays women's track and field team captured their first-ever conference championship at the CCIW indoor meet earlier this month at Carthage University.
For head coach Jordan Bartolazzi, a former Blue Jays athlete himself, it felt like an almost full-circle moment.
"My first year ever coaching, we were up there for the indoor meet. We had one individual who scored one point. And so just really fun to see how much progress we've made in those eight years. To go from literally the bottom of the conference to now in the same place come out on top was pretty special," he said.
Leading the Blue Jays' barrage was sprinter Alyssa Busker.
"The energy at that meet was unbelievable. I mean, people were just cheering for us, we were all running around to different events, cheering everyone on," Busker said.
The graduate transfer was historically good en route to two individual event wins along with a relay title. In the 55-meter final, Busker won with the fifth fastest time in Division III history, and followed it up with another dominating victory in the 200-meter race, at 24.31 seconds, the eighth best mark in the history of Division III.
"That 200 final on Saturday is the best race I've ever seen in person. To kind of give context, a 24.3 on that track, tight turns, not a place you think fast 200 times. The fact she went out and won by almost a half a second in a 200, just remarkable," Bartolazzi said.
What does it mean for Busker to hear her coach say something like that?
"That's really cool. It was definitely a really good race. I was just thinking run as hard as you can. Just finish," Busker said.
Having Busker be a part of the team is something Bartolazzi has wanted for a while, going all the way back to when she was still in high school, running for Aurora Christian.
"We'd wanted her as a freshman, and she loved Elmhurst. She ended up going to Trinity Christian College, NAIA program, and she had a great four-year career there," he said.
"I was deciding to go to Elmhurst for graduate school. So then, after I got accepted, I emailed him, and I was like, 'Hey, would you be willing to let me run my last year?" Busker said.
"I ran down the hallway about this time a year ago to tell our sprint coach Tyler, 'You won't believe who just emailed me.' It was Alyssa, and asked if we let her use her final year of eligibility. So that was one of the easiest yes's I ever said," Bartolazzi said.
And the rest, as they say, is history for Busker and the Blue Jays.
Elmhurst went on to a best-ever 10th place finish at the NCAA Division III indoor championships. Busker was one of three Blue Jays to earn 1st-team All-American honors.
