The Illinois men’s track and field team will be on the indoor track for the final time this season at the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. Competing at nationals over the weekend for the Illini will be Vanier Joseph in the 60-meter hurdles and Stephon Pamilton in the 400-meter dash. The team will also race in the 4×400 meter relay and the distance medley relay.

“Our goal as a program is to place in the top 20, which is something we are very confident about and realistically think we have a great shot at,” head coach Mike Turk said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys who have never been in a national meet before, so it will be great to see how they respond to it.”

Pamilton is coming off an individual title in the 400 meters two weeks ago at the Big Ten Championships as he prepares to run in the semifinals of the event beginning Friday. The junior sprinter qualified last week with a time of 46.07 seconds, which ranks seventh in the nation and second-fastest in school history.

“Stephon is probably our most confident athlete this weekend and has set lofty goals for himself in the meet,” Turk said. “He just has to focus on giving his best effort during the qualifying heat.”

In the hurdles, Joseph will look to improve his 7.74-second run, the 10th-fastest time in the nation, which he set at the Big Ten Championships. This will be his second appearance in nationals following a 16th-place effort in the same event at the 2011 meet while he was competing for Eastern Michigan.

“My past experience at the national meet will allow to just deal with it like it’s another meet,” he said. “It will help me stay focused on what I’m here to do and not be distracted by the amount of people, the lights and the cameras.”

Illinois is one of three schools to qualify a team for both the 4×400 relay and the distance medley relay. The Illini clinched spots in both events at last week’s Alex Wilson Last Chance meet. The 4×400 crew recorded its season-best time of 3 minutes, 7.84 seconds at the meet, while the DMR squad beat an 18-year-old school record with a time of 9:29.40.

The 4×400, consisting of Juan Paul Green, Malcolm Taylor, DJ Zahn and Pamilton, is looking to atone for the tough ending in the event at conference championships that cost the team a conference title after Pamilton’s fall in the last leg of the relay prevented the squad from finishing.

The DMR will consist of Kyle Engnell, Ryan Lynn, Pamilton and Graham Morris.  

“We got a huge confidence boost from our record-setting qualifying time last weekend,” Morris said.  “We’re going into the nationals on a high note and we are ready to aim for a successful performance and a solid time.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected].