The men’s track team finished up competition this weekend in Manhattan, winning two events.

Junior All-American Abe Jones won the 500-meter in a time of 1 minute, 2.77 seconds and sophomore Zach Glavash took home the 800-meter title in 1:50.00.

Juniors Tra Smith and Andre English set personal bests in the 800-meter and 200-meter, respectively. Smith took third in the event with a time of 1:49.89, while English finished sixth in a personal best time of 21.63.

Tim Hobbs ran a personal best time of 4:04.94 in the mile, just missing a provisional qualifying time in only his second mile run of the season.

The mile relay made up of sophomore Nathan Vadeboncoeur and juniors Adrian Walker, Smith and Jones won their heat in a provisional qualifying time of 3:09.00.

“I was pleased with those guys,” said Illinois head coach Wayne Angel. “We’re at an elite level now in the mile relay. We can run with anyone in the country.”

Sophomore Justin Kozak had a personal best of 15 feet 7 inches in the pole vault, while freshman Nick Brown triple jumped 15.39 meters.

Although the team came out of the weekend successful, Angel said the team learned that constant improvement is the key to success on the national level.

“We can always do better,” Angel said. “We’ve got a ways to go. As far as the Big Ten, I think we can compete with anybody. We’re pretty good when it comes to the Big Ten. As far as the national level, I think we’re a year away from becoming a nationally competitive team. We know we can run with anyone in the country.”

Until this meet, the Illini were not tested to their full abilities. Angel said the trip was worth it for this reason alone.

“We were able to get a lot of work done and it was worth the trip,” Angel said. “The Illini performed at a higher level than they were used to competing at. We really haven’t had any competition and now that we got some competition, we’re able to look at things as they are and make changes. When we see these guys again, expect us to do some great things.”