Track hosts third meet

By Regina Spachner

The undefeated women’s track and field team hosts its third consecutive meet of the indoor season tomorrow.

Illinois captured first place in both the Illinois Open and the Central Collegiate Championships the past two weekends. Despite their previous victories, the Illini will be concentrating on personal performances rather than their overall team standing against Georgia and Syracuse.

According to head coach Gary Winckler, the team had some things to work on this past week, and is planning on trying some new combinations in tomorrow’s invitational.

“Each week we put people in different events to get a better feel of how we’re going to put things together in terms of how to optimize our talent,” Winckler said. “The goal of these three meets in January is to solidify in the minds of both athletes and coaches what we want to do in that last week of February.”

Even though sophomore Yvonne Mensah won the 60m hurdles, ran a NCAA provisional qualifying time and set the Central Collegiate Championship record in the event last weekend, she still is looking to improve in tomorrow’s meet.

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“I still want to work on hurdles and get that automatic standard for NCAA’s, because last year I was on the bubble until last minute when I found out that I couldn’t go,” Mensah said.

Big Ten honors

Mensah was named Track and Field Big Ten Athlete of the week on Tuesday. Last weekend, she finished first in all four events she competed in and set the meet record in the 60m hurdles and ran a leg in the record-setting 4x400m relay. She is the first Illini to be named indoor Athlete of the Week since Nicole Whitman on Feb. 4, 2003.

-Regina Spachner