With a split squad at the Mt. SAC Relays, the Jesse Owens Track Classic and the LSU Alumni Gold meet, the Illinois women’s track and field team was able to overcome the separation anxiety and make a statement by concluding the pivotal three-meet weekend with some promising results on all three frontiers. 

The Illini sent multi-event seniors Marissa Golliday and Kristin Morrison to the Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, Calif., and they returned with two performances in the top 10 of Illinois’ heptathlon history. Morrison parlayed wins in the long jump and javelin throw for a personal best score of 4,993 points. Her finish was the ninth-best in school history. Golliday added personal bests in the 100-meter hurdles and high jump and wins in the 200 meters and 800 meters to achieve a school heptathlon third-best with 5,268 points. She said she was pleased with her point total but still expressed dissatisfaction with her second day of competition.

“I felt like my second day was terrible,” Golliday said. “To still get the third-best point total in school history, that is amazing. I know I could’ve done so much better than that. My long jump wasn’t very good, I could have run much faster in the 800 (meters), and I’m going to do tons better in the javelin once I get that down. It just shows me that I have a lot more potential in the heptathlon.”

At the Jesse Owens Track Classic hosted by Ohio State, Katie Porada proved to be the shining light for the Illini. She placed sixth in the 800, and she coupled that with a time of 4 minutes, 26.78 seconds and a first-place finish in the 1500 meters, ahead of four other Illinois athletes.

“She has run faster than that this season, so it wasn’t a surprise to see her win,” head coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said. “While it’s great for her to win, we want to shave some more off her time.”

Competing against tougher opposition, the Illini athletes at LSU were able to make an impact on the meet’s standings. Senior sprinter Lauren Hollingsworth finished second in the B section of the 400 meters, with a time of 54.55. The other two top-three finishes on the track were sophomore Chloe Schmidt and junior Jesica Ejesieme, coming in third and first in the B sections of the 800 and 400 hurdles, respectively.

“Jesica has come along really well this season,” Buford-Bailey said. “It was a season-best for her, so that’s an improvement. She dropped three seconds at the Big Ten meet last year, so we’re hoping for that type of improvement over this season as well.”

Before the meet, Buford-Bailey said this meet was going to be an opportunity for the team to showcase its success in the 1600-meter relay and competitively practice its 400 relay before the Drake Relays next weekend. Illinois was not able to complete the latter of the two with the normal roster, as freshman sprinter Morolake Akinosun could not make the trip for personal reasons; however, the team still impressed with a time of 45.10 in that relay.

For the field athletes, pole vaulter Stephanie Richartz was the only athlete to achieve a top-three finish in their event. Richartz finished second, clearing a vault of 4.07 meters in the pole vault.

Next weekend, Illinois will head to the Drake Relays at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where it will have a chance to finally practice its 4×100 against a large field of mostly Midwest schools in what is shaping up to be a preview of the Big Ten Championships.

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