Illinois track and field showed out during the team’s third meet of the indoor season: the Fighting Illini Challenge. Its deep roster excelled when it mattered most during the weekend and helped push Illinois toward success.
Illinois’ biggest standout from the weekend was sophomore Jip De Greef, who placed in the top five in four events. Seven others from the team won events and plenty set personal bests.
European connection
De Greef stole the show for Illinois and won the heptathlon with 6,046 points. The win for the Netherlands native was his first at the collegiate level.
His score was the program’s second-best, and De Greef is now the nation’s leading scorer after the meet. It is also the first time any athlete has surpassed 6,000 points in the NCAA this year. In the combined events within the heptathlon, he placed second in the 60-meter hurdles, fifth in the 1,000-meter and first in the pole vault.
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Another Dutch competitor in the heptathlon, junior Rafael Raap, finished sixth in the pole vault and fourth in the 60-meter hurdles for a ninth-place overall finish. In other events, Estonian-born junior Viktor Morozov dominated in the triple jump, winning it and setting a program second-best of 16.35 meters.
Illinois dreaming
On the women’s front, senior Abria Smith won the women’s shot put at 16.77 meters, setting yet another program’s second-best mark.
Illinois took home the top two spots in the men’s 60-meter hurdle with junior Dewayne Johnson and sophomore Michail Rose. Johnson finished first in 7.89 seconds, while Rose finished in 7.94.
The women’s 60-meter sprint finished with three Illini on top of the leaderboards. Sophomore Asia Thomas finished in first place with a time of 7.30, junior Azariyah Bryant finished in second at 7.37 and freshman Ranaisha Howard-Dunigan finished in third at 7.78. Thomas is currently No. 3 in the conference for the 60-meter sprint.
Illinois also fared well in the shot put event. Fifth-year senior Tyler Sudduth placed first at 19.33 meters. Sophomore Alex Sohn placed third, and sophomore Daniel Lucas placed sixth in this event.
Going the distance
Senior Tori Thomas had a big day on the pole vault, finishing first with a final score of 4.57 meters. Thomas ranks as the No. 1 pole vaulter for women in the conference. The weekend’s results helped cement her standing at the top.
Freshman Lucie Kienast finished first in both shot put and long jump while participating in the pentathlon. The freshman from Frankfurt, Germany, finished the pentathlon with a final score of 4,405, earning her second place overall.
Illinois’ upcoming indoor schedule sees the team splitting off to Albuquerque and Boston. A majority of the squad will head down to New Mexico to compete in the New Mexico Collegiate Classic.
Instead of joining the rest of the squad, the distance runners will travel to Boston University to compete in the Bruce Lehane Scarlet & White Invitational. Both events will occur on Feb. 7 and 8.
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