Illinois men’s track and field head coach Mike Turk is happy with his team’s performance this season, but barely. 

“After this year, I think we’re at the lower-end level of where we’d like to be,” Turk said. “That’s minimally acceptable. Our goal is to win championships, so we’re definitely seeing the signs that we’re headed in the right direction.”

The team began with a moderately successful indoor stint that saw them crack the top-10 performances in school history 20 times in 13 events. The team went through nine meets in the indoor circuit, culminating with the Big Ten and NCAA championships. 

The Illini had a number of brilliant performances at the Big Ten Championships with Brandon Stryganek finishing first in the 60 meter dash and the same result for Stephon Pamilton in the 400-meter dash. The sprinting pair also finished second and third, respectively, in the 200 meters. Vanier Joseph and Cam Viney both had a good meet with them pair finishing second and fourth in the 60-meter hurdles. 

In the heptathlon, Steve Monte finished with a meet fourth-best total of 5,577 points while his teammate Corey Hammon finished in sixth with 5,433 points. Both point totals broke Steve Weatherford’s school record. Illinois finished the indoor Big Ten Championship in second place with a team total of 87.5 points.

At the indoor NCAA Championship, Illinois didn’t have as much influence on the national stage as they had hoped or as they did at the conference meet. The team finished tied for 49th place without any national champion. The 1600-meter relay finished ninth, just one place off earning All-American honors. The distance medley did have better luck with that squad finishing in seventh place and all members of the relay getting All-American honors.

In the outdoor season, Illinois saw great improvements in their individual performances. Although they didn’t set any new school records outdoor, the Illini broke into the school’s top-10 performances 14 times in 12 events. 

Illinois competed in 10 outdoor meets with seven individual titles at the Big Ten-SEC Challenge and claimed team victories at the Bill Cornell Spring Classic, Lee Calhoun Invitational and the prestigious Drake Relays. 

The team continued on to the Big Ten Championship where they had the chance to make up for their runner-up finish during the indoor season. Pamilton repeated a feat he performed indoor, winning the 400 meters again. Joseph avenged his second place finish in the indoor 60m hurdles by winning the outdoor 110-meter hurdles. 

In the relays, the Illini finished in the top-three in both relays they competed in. The 400-meter relay finished third and the 1600-meter relay was runner-up in its event. The team received similar results in the field events. In the pole vault, Cody Klein was the first runner-up while his Illini compatriot Matthew Bane finished tied for third. Although they saw better performances individually, the Illini finished the outdoor conference meet in fourth place with 86 points. 

The team carried its confidence through the NCAA West Preliminary round and qualified three individual athletes and members of two relay squads to the NCAA Championship. Juan Green finished the 400 with the 14th-best time and Hunter Mickow finished the 10,000-meter distance race in 15th place as both athletes earned second-team All-American honors. 

The 400-meter relay had a disappointing meet, falling short of a spot in the final race. The 1600-meter relay had a much better showing, finishing 5th place and all the members of the squad named All-Americans.

“We were shooting for a top-five, top-three finish,” Green said. “We knew what our (ideal) time was and we knew we had to run really fast.” DJ Zahn added: “Realistically we looking to win but we’re going to take away positives from coming in fifth.”  

The team and Illini fans certainly will certainly have more promise for the future. Six of the seven athletes that made it to nationals will be returning next year, joined by a group of new athletic recruits.

“I’m proud of these guys this year, both indoors and outdoors,” Turk said. “I think it’s a signal that we have a lot of quality depth and talent. I feel pretty good about where we are going to be as a program next year. This is the first year in a while that I’m not looking at next year thinking ‘these recruits will do X-Y-Z for us.’ That’s not to say that we don’t have good recruits coming in but it means we’re a much better team than previous years. I feel good that we have talented guys coming in but in more supportive roles. Some of those guys will exceed that but really the core of our team is returning and we’ll be pretty strong.”

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