Ahead of its final indoor regular season meet, Illinois men’s track and field dropped in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association rankings for the second straight week, falling to No. 15.
That drop isn’t all bad news, though. The USTFCCCA introduced weekly polls in 2008, and since then, the Illini have never been ranked this high this far into the season. In fact, they had never been ranked this high at any point in the season during that span.
Fifth-year senior Jack Roberts is one of many Illini responsible for the dramatic turnaround. Roberts won the 3,000-meter at last weekend’s Meyo Invitational with a time that ranks fifth-best in program history.
“I certainly see them, everyone sees them,” Roberts said about the weekly rankings. “It’s reassuring, but I feel like we’re all focused on executing the best that we can in order to make those rankings a reality.”
Roberts is not expected to compete at this weekend’s Tiger Paw Invitational, but several of his teammates will be back in action after taking last weekend off to rest and recover.
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The Tiger Paw Invitational, held at Clemson’s Rock Norman Track & Field Complex, begins Friday, with the men’s weight throw set to take place at 10 a.m. Senior Tyler Sudduth’s mark of 23.14 meters remains atop the national leaderboard for the event.
Saturday’s events kick off at 8 a.m. CT with the women’s shot put. The first men’s event of the day will be the pole vault, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. CT. Freshman Cody Johnston came just one centimeter short of setting a new personal best last weekend in the pole vault.
Junior Kam Garrett will get a chance to improve upon his personal-best high jump mark of 2.18 meters, which ranks 13th best in the country. The men’s high jump is one of the final events of the meet, set to begin on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT.
Sophomore Viktor Morozov also holds the nation’s 13th-best mark in his event: the triple jump. Unlike Garrett, Morozov’s leap of 15.87 meters does not represent his personal best. Morozov will have a shot to climb the triple jump leaderboard on Saturday at 10 a.m. CT.
The Illini will face tough competition in every event, as 30 schools are set to participate in the meet, including No. 7 Alabama, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 13 Georgia, No. 18 Penn State, No. 21 South Carolina and No. 23 Tennessee.
Part of the meet will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra, with coverage beginning at 11 a.m. CT on Friday and at 8 a.m. CT on Saturday.
