Just four days after Illinois men’s track and field won eight events in front of a home crowd, the team is already back on the road competing. The Mt. SAC Relays, billed as the meet “Where the world’s best athletes compete,” kicks off Wednesday and runs through Saturday. Mt. San Antonio College hosts the meet at its Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, California.
The meet consists of two tiers of competition at the college level: the collegiate and the highly selective “elite” level. For Illinois to even compete in the meet is an accomplishment on its own, as only around 20 programs are invited to the meet this year, according to the Mt. SAC Relays website.
It won’t be easy for the Illini to continue their winning ways, as the selective nature of the meet means that the competition will be as tough as ever. It’s not just college athletes, either. This year, the competition includes several international representatives and even a handful of Olympians.
Senior Robert Williams will be facing off in the 400-meter hurdles elite against Eric Cray, who competed in the same event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Senior Aiden Ouimet takes on two-time Olympian Keisuke Ushiro in the decathlon, an event in which Ushiro has won gold medals twice at the Asian Games.
Senior Tyler Sudduth will be competing in Saturday’s discus throw alongside fellow senior Will Rezny. In 2023’s Mt. SAC Relays, Sudduth placed first in the collegiate discus throw with a 56.13-meter mark. This past weekend, Sudduth placed fifth in discus with a 52.16-meter throw.
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Also returning to the Mt. SAC Relays is sophomore Viktor Morozov. Morozov will be competing in the triple jump elite. At last year’s relays, he claimed first place at the collegiate level with a 15.66-meter jump, which stands as his personal best distance for the outdoor triple jump. Morozov will be competing against other elite jumpers, many of whom have more experience, including last year’s second and third-place finishers in Academy of Arts junior Yacouba Gnacko (15.60 meters) and UCLA senior Jalyn Jackson (15.59 meters).
Sophomore Tadeas Placek will be seeking a higher placement than his 2023 performance and seems to be in a good position to do so after taking third in the 400 at the Gary Wieneke Memorial. Placek also aided the Illinois 4×400 meter relay team to a first-place finish this past weekend. This year at Mt. SAC, Placek will be competing with the 4×400 meter relay as well as the 800 instead of the 400. A 1-minute and 48.12-second personal-best 800 meters puts Placek in a strong spot for placing among the best in the 800. It will be a tough race as Nike-sponsored Olympian Isaiah Jewett will be returning, looking to defend first place.
The meet will be broadcast on RunnerSpace.com. Ouimet will be the first Illini to compete, and the decathlon events are slated to begin Wednesday at noon CDT.
