The 2019-2020 women’s track and field season is in the books due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While this means Illini fans are going to have to wait months to see their favorite athletes back in action, it doesn’t mean a recap of this season’s highs and lows has to be canceled, too. 

After a fine 2018-2019 season, the Illini came out hungry and ambitious, despite losing some key contributors from the previous season, including sprinter Janile Rogers and jumper Briana Driver, the latter of whom finished fifth in the Big Ten Championship for long jumping. 

Illinois opened its indoor season at the Larry Wieczorek Invite in Iowa City, Iowa, home to the Hawkeyes. Although the team finished seventh out of eight teams, many individual performances outshined the overall team. The Illini, led by senior Carolyn Nye, who recorded the fourth-best pole vault score in school history at 3.95 meters, finished third in the competition as a team. 

But junior Amira Aduma stole the show in the Iowa invite, securing first place in the women’s long jump with 6.14 meters, winning the Illini their first event title of the season. Coach Mike Turk didn’t hold back his excitement with her performance. 

“Amira was great,” Turk said. “It was a tremendous start to the season. It’s awesome to have her healthy and back long jumping. Her performance in the long jump set the tone for the weekend.”

Illinois then headed back home for their senior day, hosting Eastern Illinois, Milwaukee and IUPUI. That weekend ended up being the most successful weekend for the Illini by a mile. 

Aduma followed up her impressive Iowa weekend with even more accolades, collecting the event titles for the 60-meter dash, long jump and was on the event-winning 4×400-meter relay.

While it was a celebration for the seniors, freshman Tracy Towns stole some of the spotlight with a 600-meter sprint victory with a time of 1:34.27.

As the final event wrapped up, the Illini racked up victories in seven events, including one team victory, to finish off their best weekend of the season. 

“I was really pleased with our effort and performance today,” Turk said. “We challenged the team to bring a higher level of energy, try to amp things up from what we did last week. I think they did an outstanding job of that. I really like our team.”

Unfortunately for the Illini, the accolades plummeted, as the team didn’t win any more team or individual events for the rest of the season. But while the Illini weren’t as victorious, experience was gained for a young team that is losing five seniors, even though they didn’t get to begin the outdoor season.

“We’ve got a pretty young squad,” Turk said. “But they can do some things. They’ve got a chance to be a really special group.”

With the season now wrapped up, the Illini look to take strides with their young team and compete next January in their first indoor meet of 2021. 

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