The United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association ranked the Illini women’s track & field team as No. 1 in their first weekly national rankings. The men’s team debuted at No. 9.
This marks the third year in a row the women’s team premiered as the nation’s leader. The ranking comes after a successful Fighting Illini Challenge and Combined Events with multiple national top-five performances.
Junior Sophia Beckmon (6.81m) and sophomore Lucie Kienast (4,337) have the leading national scores in the long jump and the pentathlon, respectively.
Second in the nation is senior Mia Morello after her pole vault of 4.50 meters, marking a personal best and second best in program history. In her debut triple jump of 13.50 meters, freshman Romi Tamir broke the Armory record and is now second in the nation.
Sophomore JaiCieonna Gero-Holt follows Kienast closely in the pentathlon, ranking second in the NCAA (4,250).
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Other national top-five performers are junior Jordan Koskondy at third in the weight throw (22.91m), junior Mercy Honesty at fourth in the triple jump (13.38m) and graduate student Phethisang Makhethe at fourth in the weight throw (22.77m).
The men’s ranking of ninth place is one spot lower than the previous year. Five athletes hold a top 10 score in their respective event, including freshman Luuk Pelkmans, junior Jip de Greef, junior Cody Johnston, senior Viktor Morozov and freshman Kennedy Ocansey.
Pelkmans currently holds the national lead and ranks second in the world in the heptathlon (6,151). Two spots behind is de Greef, who slots in at the third-best mark nationally (6,019).
Johnston’s PB pole vault of 5.62 meters sits at the nation’s seventh-best spot. In the triple jump, Morozov is eighth (16.10m). Ocansey reached 2.18 meters in the high jump, the ninth-best mark in the country.
