The women’s track and field team traveled to Fayetteville, Ark., over the weekend to compete with some of the best runners in the nation at the Tyson Invitational. Junior Camile Robinson led the Illini with two personal-best times in the 60-meter hurdles and 400-meter dash.

“It felt pretty good to get to the level that I wanted to be at,” Robinson said. “Coach Winckler has been working with me and has been doing a good job getting all of us to a level that we need to be at.”

Three Illini distance runners recorded personal bests in the 3,000-meters. Junior Cassie Hunt led the charge by running a new Illinois record and automatic qualifying time of 9:15.16 to place second overall. Hunt’s mark is Illinois’ first automatic qualification of the season.

Junior Stephanie Simms provisionally qualified for nationals as she finished sixth in the race with 9:29.95. Sophomore Maggie Carroll finished 10th with a personal-best 9:45.72.

Illinois’ successful weekend did not end there. It also finished the meet with a provisional-qualifying time in the 4×400-meter relay. Juniors Yvonne Mensah, Carlene Robinson and Camile Robinson, and freshman Omoye Ugiagbe, ran a season-best 3:37.50 to finish fifth. The time ranks third on Illinois’ all-time best list.

Individually, Carlene Robinson placed first in the 800-meters with a time of 2:10.24. This first place finish was Robinson’s first 800-meter race of the indoor season. Freshman Pam Wolf also ran strong with a time of 2:11.56 to finish sixth.

In the field events, sophomore Mareisa Greene competed against many of the nation’s best high jumpers. Greene managed to clear a personal-indoor best height of 1.74m on her third attempt to place second. Auburn’s Michelle Wiliamson bested Greene’s performance by clearing 1.74m in just two attempts to take first place.

Junior Yvonne Mensah placed second with a leap of 12.81m (42’00.50″), just .25 inches off Florida State’s Alyce Williams’ first-place mark of 12.82m (52’00.50″). This was Mensah’s first jump of the year. Senior Nina Henson finished third and provisionally qualified in the triple jump championship with a leap of 12.82m..

The team hopes to use this momentum as it prepares for the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Madison, Wisc., in two weeks.