The Illini relay team produced the second-best performance the school had ever seen. 

Amanda Duvendack, Samantha Murphy, Ahlivia Spencer and Marissa Golliday put together the second-best 3200-meters relay Illinois has ever had, eclipsing a mark Duvendack, Murphy and two others set last year by nearly a full second. Their time of 8 minutes, 46.08 seconds was also good enough for second in the 3200-meter medley field, which included No. 4 Louisiana State and indoor season national champions, No. 2 Oregon. The Illini also produced an array of good performances to round out a successful meet in Austin, Texas.

“I was really pleased,” head coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said. “I felt like everyone performed very well, which is hard now. We are just trying to perform our best and coming out of each meet with success.” 

Buford-Bailey highlighted performances in the 3200-, 1600- and 400-meter relays, and said it was encouraging to have relative success in those events, considering the team’s lack of outdoor practices this season. 

She was also elated with freshman sprinter Morolake Akinosun’s weekend in the 100-meter dash. Akinosun achieved the school’s second-best 100 time en route to a sixth-place finish in the finals. Murphy, in addition to the 3200 relay, competed in the 1500 meters, an event in which she achieved the eighth best time in school history. She admitted being shocked at her performance, with this being her first meet competing in that event. 

“It was very different,” Murphy said. “I just had a time that coach wanted me to go for the first 800, and I tried to finish from there. I was very surprised by my performance.”

Sophomore sprinter Ashley Spencer competed in the 400 and 1600 relays, as well as the 400-meters hurdles. The relay teams placed fifth in both events and finished half a second slower than the program record. Ashley Spencer also qualified second overall for the 400-meter hurdles final but didn’t compete for strategic reasons. 

“Coach didn’t want to put a lot on my plate,” Ashley Spencer said. “She really wanted to have a good 4×100 and 4×400 opener. She just wanted a good time in the prelims for the hurdles. To open up so close to the school record was very exciting. Unlike a lot of other teams, we are still unable to practice outside. Opening up very close to the school record, it makes us believe that when we do finally get to practice outside regularly, we’ll run even faster.”

Junior Stephanie Richartz competed in the pole vault finals and finished fifth in the standings by clearing 4.31 meters. 

“I was really pleased with my jump,” Richartz said. “I was right around where I finished last season, so it gives me a lot of hope to build on looking forward. I want to get to around a 4.40-4.45, but my ideal jump would be a 4.5.”

Buford-Bailey is optimistic about the season ahead, including the Sun Angel Classic next week. 

“I feel good about our progress.” Buford-Bailey said. “I look at the Big Ten and we are leading most of the events. Of course we will have to spend another week indoors, but next weekend is another opportunity to go outdoors and be on the track and get used to the wind for our field event athletes, which is important at this point. We ran against some really competitive teams, so we did the best, considering the climate and the impressive field. I would say hands down, we had the best result.”

Lanre can be reached at [email protected] and @WriterLanre.