Sophomore Cassie Hunt wrapped up her individual track season Friday night by taking second place in the steeplechase at the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, California.

Hunt ran the fastest time of her career, 9:59.82, to secure her runner-up and All-America status. The woman Hunt beat at the regional meet, Victoria Mitchell of Butler, won the event in 9:54.32.

The second place is Illinois’ first since Yvonne Harrison was second in the 400 meter hurdles in 1998. Since then, the Fighting Illini have had seven top-five finishers, including Perdita Felicien’s back-to-back 100 meter hurdles titles in 2002 and 2003.

“I told her to make a move and with two laps to go, she made the boldest move of the race. She had the guts to push the pace hard when no one else would,” distance coach Karen Harvey said.

“We’ve been waiting for Cassie to run under ten minutes for a long time and if she didn’t win, we at least wanted her to break ten minutes. What she’s done this year is an incredible achievement for a sophomore, just incredible,” Harvey added. “This was the first real high-pressure race that she’s had to run and for a sophomore to race like she did was incredible. There was a lot of pressure on her coming in as one of the favorites and she handled it great.”

Hunt capped a ten and a half-month season that began with cross country in August and stretched through last Friday. Along the way she picked up first team All-Big Ten recognition in cross country, indoor and outdoor track, earned All-America honors in indoor and outdoor track, was named Regional Runner of the Year in cross country and outdoor track and earned the Big Ten outdoor Athlete of the Year and Athlete of the Championships awards.

She won the regional cross-country race and the Big Ten 5,000 meter crown. Hunt also captured the Big Ten and regional steeplechase titles.

In the 400 meter hurdles, sophomore Camile Robinson narrowly missed making Saturday’s final, finishing fifth in her heat and ninth overall in 57.26, missing the final by .01 seconds as the eighth place finisher ran 57.25.

Jaime Turilli closed out Illinois’ competition at the NCAA Championships on Saturday night. Turilli, who was the first Fighting Illini woman ever to qualify for the NCAA meet in the 5,000 meter, ran 17:14.22 to finish 15th nationally. Turilli had run the second fastest time in the prelims, establishing a school record of 16:13.53. She wraps up the season as Illinois’ indoor and outdoor 5,000 meter record holder.