The Illini women’s track and field team has its sights set on another record-breaking weekend.
Early in the 2013 outdoor season, the Illini head into a busy weekend with two meets scheduled and high expectations. Following a successful indoor season, in which the Illini placed 14th in nationals, the Illini will get a chance to ply their trade to an outdoor track.
To do so, Illinois will get out of the unseasonably cold Midwest weather and head to Texas and California in split squads. The Illini will compete in the Texas Relays in Austin and the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., — an event Illinois attended in 2011.
The Illini have been forced to prepare for the outdoor events at their indoor track facility.
“Well, right now it’s snowing, and we’re running outdoor track, so that’s really our biggest challenge,” head coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said. “There are some events where we need to be outdoors right now, but we don’t have that. We’re moving things around here in the indoor track to accommodate.”
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Even with the hindrance of weather keeping the Illini from having any outdoor practice, the team aims to break a few school records this weekend. Buford-Bailey is pretty confident that can happen.
“We want to break the record in the (3,200-meter relay),” she said. “We want to run one of the school’s top-10 times in the (400-meter relay) and we want to get close to — if not break — the (1,600-meter relay) record.”
Despite lofty goals, the team has proved with its performances that it is more than ready to back it up.
Sophomore sprinter Ashley Spencer wants to use this meet to address issues with her starts, and she also wants the team to work on baton exchanges. Faced with the task of defending her national title in the 400, Spencer is trying to focus on the immediate challenge presented by this weekend.
“Right now, I just take it week by week,” Spencer said. “Taking each meet as an opportunity to do my best and advance. Really as Big Ten (Championships) approach, I just want to focus on perfecting my start and executing what I have to do in the middle. Defending my national title, yes, that is something I want to do, but I want to take it step-by-step and build up to it.”
Lanre can be reached at [email protected].
