The Illinois men’s track team will compete in the Central Collegiate Championship, its only home meet of the outdoor season, on Saturday.

The team’s season-long goal is to get 25 regional qualifying marks for the NCAA Regional Championship on May 27. In 20 events total, Illinois has 20 regionally qualifying marks and head coach Wayne Angel said the goal could be reached this weekend because of the home crowd.

“I think it (competing at home) makes a great difference,” said head coach Wayne Angel. “Your fan base is much larger, and I think the athletes get really excited about competing in front of a home crowd. There is an advantage.”

Angel hopes the five needed qualifiers will come from junior Eric DiSilvestro in the pole vault, senior Josh Fournier in the long jump, junior Charley Kurlinkus in the high jump, junior Bryan Pratt in the short hurdles and junior Tim Hobbs in the 800-meters.

One of the many highlights of the meet will be the 110-meter high hurdle. Notre Dame senior Selim Nurudeen will face off with Illinois junior Andre English. Nurudeen’s personal best time is 13.57, while English’s best is 13.86.

Nurudeen has been the Big East champ in the event since he was a freshman and will challenge English for the meet title.

Illinois junior Abe Jones will compete in the 400-meters against Southern Illinois’ top sprinter, senior Felix Anderson.

Illinois also hosted the Central Collegiate Championship during the indoor season. If that meet was any indication of what the results will be for this weekend, Illinois will not have a very tough time with the competition. In January, the Illini won 13 of 16 events on their way to the meet title.

“We’re very excited,” Angel said. “We had fun at Central Collegiate indoors, and we think we’ll bring the same intensity and preparation to this meet. The momentum is still continuing from indoors. We’re going to keep up the good work and see if we can come out on top.”