With several top sprinters resting for the weekend, other Illinois women’s track and field athletes had an opportunity to shine.

The Illini traveled to Columbia, Mo., to compete in the Missouri’s Tom Botts Invitational. The team scored 94 points overall, which landed it in fourth place behind Missouri (251.50), Iowa (130) and Missouri State (111).

Junior Kawanna Brooks was the top performer for the Illini, competing in three events over the course of the day. She finished runner-up in all of her events — the high jump, triple jump and the 100 meter hurdles. She posted a personal best in the hurdles with a time of 14.18 seconds as well as a career-best high jump of 1.64 meters.

“I definitely think the star of the day was Kawanna Brooks, she had a really good high jump, a really good triple jump and came back and ran the second fastest time she’s ever ran in the hurdles, so just to be able to juggle all the different events in one day is impressive,” head coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said.

Even with top sprinters, including All-American freshman Ashley Spencer, taking the weekend off, Illinois still managed success on the track. In the 400 meters, Illini crossed the finish line in first and second place with junior Marissa Golliday taking home the victory with a time of 54.12 seconds, followed by freshman Asia Thomas who posted a time of 54.92.

“They did really well,” Buford-Bailey said. “Track and field is a sport where you compete as a team but it’s really an individual sport and I feel like everyone individually did what they needed to do.”

Along with Brooks, Golliday competed in multiple events on the track and on the field in preparation for their next heptathalon competition at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships. She finished directly behind Brooks in the high jump with a third-place jump of 1.59 meters.

“They’re not going to do a heptathalon again until the Big Ten meet, so it was good for them to go in and do a lot of individual events,” Buford-Bailey said.

Stephanie Richartz set another personal best in the pole vault, finishing in first place with a jump of 4.11 meters. Her performance started a trend of personal bests among the other athletes.

“Stephanie Richartz jumped her season best in the pole vault, and with Kawanna performing and Mariah Smith having a personal best in the discus, when you look at stuff like that individually they did really good,” Buford-Bailey said.

The Illini will begin the most difficult portion of their schedule next weekend as they travel to Walnut, Ca., for the Mt. SAC Relays.

“We’re going to back off right now with training getting ready for the next two weekends coming up,” Buford-Bailey said.