The Illinois men’s track and field team will look to continue its early season success as it transitions from indoor to outdoor season at the Bill Cornell Spring Classic in Carbondale, Ill., this weekend. 

“Everything is a work in progress, as we hope to continue to see some steady progress in these early season meets,” head coach Mike Turk said. “We mostly just want to see the guys compete and get more race experience under our belts in the outdoor events.”

The Illini will continue to use the early season outdoor meets as an opportunity to gain valuable experience in the outdoor events that the team did not run during the indoor season, such as the 100-meter dash, the 1,500 meters and the 400-meters relay.

Following a title-winning performance at the Big Ten/SEC challenge in the 110-meter hurdles, junior Vanier Joseph was named as the Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week. This week, Joseph will race the 100 in addition to 110-meters hurdles, which is an event lineup that he hopes to keep consistent.

“It’s always a challenge to go from the indoor season to the outdoor season in a span of two weeks without a lot of rest and training time,” Joseph said. “The next few weeks will be mostly just focusing on regaining my strength, endurance and consistency from the end of the indoor season and that will again be the focus this weekend.”

Along with the challenges associated with the outdoor transition, the recent inclement weather has also posed an issue in the young season. The team experienced frequent rain and the threat of storms last weekend in Starkville, Miss., which is a factor that Turk attributes to the Illini not winning more titles. Illinois was originally scheduled to compete at Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., this weekend, but the meet was canceled due to snow.

“Bad weather was a factor that definitely had an effect on us last week, and that is something that we just have to deal with outdoors,” Turk said. “Becoming more accustomed to competing in bad weather is part of the progression we hope to see in the early season.”

The other outdoor-exclusive events in which Illinois will look to show growth are the 1,500 and the 4×100. Senior Ryan Lynn, a regular in the 800 meters, will be running in the 1500 for the first time in his career. The Illini are also hoping for more progress for the 4×100 squad that was disqualified last weekend after a series of false starts.

“It’ll be good to get out there and see what I can do in an event I’m not used to running,” Lynn said. “The goal is for me to compete in the 1,500 for Big Tens later in the season, so this weekend will be the first real chance to build up my familiarity in the event.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected].