The No. 16 Illini look to make their mark at the Sun Angel Classic, a meet including talent from 20 colleges, some high schools and the professional ranks. 

“This weekend is going to be tough,” head coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said. “There are a lot of teams. It will range from people who are really fast to people just getting themselves going on the collegiate ranks. It’s going to be a wide range of talent at this meet, which is fun.” 

Even with the volume of competition, there aren’t many top-ranked universities at the meet, which is hosted by Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz. Given Illinois’ start in the outdoor season, the expectation would be for it to outclass some of its opponents, but Buford-Bailey is not underestimating the competition. 

“I don’t think the rankings mean a lot,” Buford-Bailey said. “You have to go to the national meet and perform well to get your national finish. The rankings are great, it’s great being ranked top 20, but I don’t think it really matters for much.”

Three meets into the outdoor season, the team finally got a chance to practice on the outdoor track this week for the first time. The presence of unseasonable weather and having to practice indoors has not hindered the team’s performances yet, so Buford-Bailey and the Illini athletes believe they will be able to perform even better this weekend. 

“We’re kind of a little tired from traveling and not being able to practice outside yet,” Buford-Bailey said. “It’s going to be over 90 degrees, so that is going to be a challenge for us in and of itself, getting used to that climate. But either way, I think they’ll go out well.”

Freshman sprinter Morolake Akinosun looks to continue her success in the 100-meter dash, having recorded the second-fastest time in school history of 11.29 seconds. After taking Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week honors, Akinosun is still trying to manage expectations.

“My outlook is always the same for every weekend that I go into competition,” Akinosun said. “I’m just trying to run fast and do the best I can, better than I did the previous week. I think the pressure is pretty much the same. There’s always a level of pressure to do as well as you’ve been doing previously. I just want to keep the same mindset as I have all season, work hard and do better than I can.”

Buford-Bailey is also happy to have her whole squad at the same meet this weekend. Last weekend, they were split to three different meets, but every competing athlete will travel to Tempe this week. 

“I think it’s great (to have everyone together), and it gives us a chance to see what it feels like so when we go to the Big Ten Championship meet, it will give us a test run at that,” Buford-Bailey said. “The girls, anytime they can be all together with the different event areas, it’s always great for us.”

Junior Marissa Golliday, who will be competing in the long jump, 100-meter hurdles and javelin, made the team’s intent at this meet clear. 

“I think my team in general is doing extremely well,” Golliday said. “We are just putting it all together at these meets so we can accomplish our goals, which are Big Tens and nationals. We want everyone to know we are somebody to watch out for. We compete hard wherever we go, and we are really making a statement on the track this year. They just need to know we are a team to watch out for.”

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