The Illinois women’s track team started its indoor season with two impressive performances at home.

After taking nine individual titles in the season-opening Illini Open, the team finished first in a 10-team field at the Illini Classic on Saturday.

“It was a great day and a great meet,” head coach Ron Garner said in a press release. “Last week, we came back from break and knew we had some work to do. We did a lot of work in the past two weeks, and we came in today and did some more. We did some quality things and as a whole, we saw a team that was ready to compete.”

Illinois scored 159 points, 66 more than Memphis who finished second with 93 points. Northern Illinois, Western Michigan and Eastern Illinois rounded out the top five with 73.50, 54 and 53.50 points, respectively.

Five Illini, including senior Kawanna Brooks and junior Asia Thomas, won individual events and another five placed in the top three in their events.

Thomas won her first 400-meter race of the season with a time of 56.68 seconds and contributed to the 4×400-meter relay team that also placed first.

Brooks also had a great day, winning the 60-meter hurdles the second straight week.

Illinois will look to continue its early-season success this Jan. 24 and 25 at the Rod McCravy Memorial Meet in Lexington, Ky.

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.