This coming week, Illinois women’s track and field will fly to Walnut, California, where it will be competing in the 64th Annual Mt. SAC Relays. The events will take place at the Mt. SAC Hilmer Lodge Stadium.
Over last weekend, Illinois women’s track and field competed at home, hosting its second annual Gary Wieneke Memorial on Saturday, Apr 13.
“Today was an amazing day for a lot of our athletes,” said head coach Petros Kyprianou.
Many Illinois female athletes broke program and personal records, with junior Tacoria Humphrey being a big contributor to the record-breaking on Saturday. Humphrey broke the program record for the women’s long jump with a 6.73-meter jump, and she was ranked No. 1 nationally as a result.
Freshman Elizabeth Ndudi jumped the program’s second-best at 6.68 meters earning her second place on Saturday. Junior Darja Sopova came in third place at 6.64 meters. Sopova jumped just as well in the triple jump to earn the gold with a 13.37-meter finish.
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The women did not stop there and a relay team of freshmen Asia Thomas and Sophia Beckmon, as well as Humphrey and sophomore Azariyah Bryant, finished first in the 4×100-meter relay. The women recorded a 43.84-second time, creating the second-best time in Illinois program history.
Junior Jessica McDowell took the gold in the 200-meter with a time of 22.95 seconds. This was recorded as the fastest time in Illinois program history. Her teammate, Beckmon, was close behind her in second place with a time of 23.13 seconds.
Another gold medal was won by junior Tori Thomas, who pole vaulted 4.37 meters and holds the record for Illinois with the second-best pole vault. Graduate students Amber Simpson and Taylor Beard also added to Illinois’ success on Saturday. Simpson tossed a 70.21-meter hammer throw, leading to her being ranked second in the nation. She also holds the new record for Illinois and the Big Ten. In addition, Beard jumped 1.75 meters for the high jump, earning a gold medal.
Illinois women’s track and field has a busy schedule ahead of it. After this coming weekend in California, the team will travel to Des Moines, Iowa the following weekend for the Drake Relays. The team then returns home on May 4 to compete in the Fighting Illini Tune-Up in Champaign.
