This Saturday the women’s track team will head to Madison, Wis., to compete in the Big Ten Indoor Championships. All season long the women have been trying out different personnel combinations to find what works best, but that time of trial and error is over.

“We will be putting people where they best perform,” head coach Gary Winckler said. “We have a few different directions we can go with some, but for the most part, we’ll be keeping people in the same areas as they’ve performed in all year.”

The threatening Illini women have many weapons at their disposal such as junior sprinter Yvonne Mensah, who won a conference title last year in the 60-meter hurdles and went on to be an All-American hurdler. This season, Mensah has transformed from a hurdler to a straight-sprinter with the top 60-meter time in the conference of 7.41. Sprinting is not the only area Mensah has excelled in this year. She currently leads the Big Ten with the top leaps in the long jump of 20’4″ and the triple jump of 43’4′.

“Yvonne has been jumping well, so she will be jumping both events,” Winckler said. “We’ve been talking about jumping for over a year now. In the fall we decided that she would try it, and it has worked out.”

The addition of Mensah to the Illini’s jumping squad has helped strengthen an already top group of jumpers. Senior Nina Henson holds the second best distance in the conference in the triple jump and junior Kristina Jones recorded the Big Ten’s fourth best distance in the triple jump.

Junior Cassie Hunt leads the women in distance events. She currently holds the conference best in the 3,000-meter run with a 9:15.16 and the fourth fastest mile time of 4:45.66. Hunt’s league-leading 3,000-meter time makes her the only Illini who has earned an automatic qualifying time.

Along with Hunt, junior Stephanie Simms gives Illinois a good one-two punch in the distance events. Just last week at the Tyson Invitational, Simms recorded a provisional qualifying time of 9:29.95 in the 3,000-meter, a career-best.

“There are so many distance events indoors, so it may come down to where the other staffs place their personnel,” Winckler said. “There have been meets where some events have become very weak because all the coaches put their athletes in another event. We can expect strong performances from Cassie and Stephanie wherever we place them.”

The distance medley relay, has not been run by Illinois yet this year, but they hope to field a competitive group of runners.

“We haven’t run a DMR yet this year so we are still playing with some of the personnel,” Winkler said. “The team we assemble should be a good one that has a chance at winning.”

Unlike the distance medley relay, Winckler’s 4×400-meter relay team has no current openings. The team of freshman Omoye Ugiagbe and juniors Camile Robinson, Mensah and Carlene Robinson hold the conference’s top time in the relay with a 3:37.50. That mark has provisionally qualified the group for the NCAAs.

“Our outlook hasn’t changed since the beginning of the season,” Winckler said. “We are usually a better outdoor team than an indoor team because of how we match up. We’ve had some injuries and some kids get sick, but I think overall we are heading into the championships in pretty good shape.”