Despite the fact that its next team meet is weeks away, there has been plenty of recent excitement for the Illinois track and field program.
Following the women’s team’s Big Ten victory this last weekend, program director Petros Kyprianou was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Kyprianou is the first Illini coach to claim the award since 2013.
“I’ve always been more of an NCAA championship pursuer,” Kyprianou said on Big Ten Network. “But they say when you shoot for the stars, you land on the moon or something like that. Landing on this kind of moon, in the Big Ten (championship), it’s been amazing.”
The team’s 12 brightest stars were recently selected to represent Illinois at the NCAA indoor championship. Among those selected was junior Jessica McDowell, whose 51.81 second 400-meter time at the Big Ten Championships earned her the No. 12 seed for nationals.
“Fifty-one (seconds) has always gotten into nationals, so once I ran that, immediately I knew that I was going to be in,” McDowell said.
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Sophia Beckmon equaled the school record for the long jump, which she already held previously this year, by leaping 6.49 meters to earn her spot as one of two Illini freshmen to make it to nationals, seeded at No. 9.
Joining Beckmon is freshman Elizabeth Ndudi, seeded at No. 15, who leaped an impressive 6.41 meters in the long jump to qualify. This mark ranks third of all-time in Illinois history and is an Armory facility record.
Junior Tacoria Humphrey qualified for the national meet in the long jump with a mark of 6.42 meters and is seeded at No. 14. She is now second on the program leaderboard, behind Beckmon.
Junior Bara Sajdokova qualified for nationals in the high jump with a clearance of 1.89 meters, moving her into Big Ten champion status, and the first Illini women’s high jumper to do so since 2014. This is an Illinois record, and in the Big Ten championships, she is tied as the No. 7 seed. Redshirt Junior Rose Yeboah also qualified in the high jump with a height of 1.88 meters. She set this mark at the Illini Challenge, and it was a school record at the time. She is seeded at No. 10.
Representing Illinois in the triple jump is junior Darja Sopova, who qualified with a hop of 13.56 meters at the Commodore Challenge where she walked away the event champion. This took over a 21-year school record and earned her a No. 6 seed.
Junior Tori Thomas cleared 4.42 meters in the pole vault, which is the second-best mark in Illinois history and an Armory facility record; she is seeded at No. 10. Thomas vaulted this mark at the very first meet of the season at the Illini Open.
Graduate student Amber Simpson qualified in the weight throw with a toss of 22.01 meters and is seeded at No. 14. She set a school record with this throw at the Meyo Invitational, and it’s her first time breaking the 22-meter mark in her career.
On the men’s side, senior Aiden Ouimet earned Big Ten Men’s Field Athlete of the Championship honors following his conference-record heptathlon score of 6,120 points. Ouimet is the first athlete in program history to earn the award and enters nationals as the No. 2 seed.
Senior Tyler Sudduth is the lone qualifier with indoor championship experience, finishing eighth in the weight throw last season. Sudduth enters this year’s championship as the No. 7 seed, thanks to his program-record 23.14-meter toss.
In his first season at Illinois, junior Kam Garrett qualified for his first indoor nationals. Garrett grabbed the No. 8 seed in the high jump with his 2.21-meter leap, equaling the 44-year-old program record.
“I’ve been here for five years now, and this is the first year that I’ve been this excited to be a part of a team like this,” McDowell said. “I never really thought I would get to have this sort of experience, and so being a part of this is just something really special.”
The nationals are set to begin March 7 with the men’s weight throw at 5 p.m. CT. The women’s weight throw will follow, with the remaining events taking place over the next two days.
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