The No. 11 Illini men’s track and field will travel to South Bend, Indiana, this weekend for the Meyo Invitational. The meet will kick off Friday with the women’s long jump slated to begin at 3 p.m. CT. The first men’s event will be the pole vault, which is set to start at 5 p.m. CT.
Fifth-year senior Aiden Ouimet will have to wait three weeks to improve upon his new school-record heptathlon score of 5,985, as neither the Meyo Invitational nor the Tiger Paw Invitational, which Illinois is scheduled to compete in two weeks from now, offers the event.
Ouimet, whose performance at the Illini Challenge earned him Big Ten Men’s Co-Field Athlete of the Week honors, briefly had the top collegiate heptathlon mark before his score was bested by Arkansas’ Jack Turner’s 6,000-point showing at the Razorback Invitational just hours later.
Ouimet is the second Illini to earn Big Ten Field Athlete of the Week this season. Junior Kam Garrett received the award after winning the high jump with a mark of 2.18 meters at the Illini Open on Jan. 6. Garrett finished second in the high jump at the Illini Challenge behind teammate and fellow junior Jackson Marseille.
Senior Tyler Sudduth will have a chance to improve his nation-leading weight-throw distance of 23.14 meters. Sudduth set the mark on Jan. 20 at the Larry Wieczorek Invitational, and the record remained untouched through last weekend’s meets. The weight throw will begin at 1:15 p.m. CT on Saturday.
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Sophomore Viktor Morozov, who won a fire-alarm-shortened triple jump at the Illini Challenge, will also look to set a new personal best this weekend. Morozov leaped 15.87 meters on Saturday — good enough for 12th on the national leaderboard but still short of the 15.93 meters he jumped at last year’s Big Ten Indoor Championships.
Junior Daniel Mboyo just set a personal best of his own at the Illini Challenge, where he won the long jump with a distance of 7.62 meters. Mboyo’s mark currently stands as the 32nd best in the country and is four centimeters better than his previous personal best. The men’s long jump starts on Friday at 5:30 p.m. CT.
The distance medley team — consisting of junior Nicolas Dovalovsky and seniors Will O’Brien, Will Merrick and second-team All Big-Ten cross country runner Jack Roberts — also holds a top national time. Their 9:58.31 run, which earned them first at Illini Challenge, ranks 21st nationwide.
ACC Network Extra will broadcast part of the meet, including the mile run, 60-meter hurdle finals and 60-meter dash, with coverage beginning on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT.
