Illini men’s track and field finishes 4th at Big Tens

By Chris Kennedy

Joe McAsey had never gotten to compete for the Illini men’s track and field team before this season. Now, McAsey leaves the Big Ten Indoor Championships with a second-place finish in the 600 meters.

“I went out really hard, just made sure I wasn’t lagging behind the leaders,” McAsey said. “With a half left to go, I started moving up, and then down the home stretch, I just kicked it in as hard as I could and was able to pass everybody in my heat.”

McAsey missed his 2013 track season with multiple injuries, and he sat out most of this fall with a stress fracture in his femur.

“It’s pretty amazing,” head coach Mike Turk said. “The progress that he’s shown, and to move back down to a 600 like he did indoors, which is more speed-based, really, that’s tough to do.”

McAsey was one of the Illini’s top performers at the meet this weekend and helped bring them to a fourth-place finish at the Big Tens at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Senior sprinter Stephon Pamilton also successfully defended his 400 title from last year’s meet. Pamilton said he definitely felt the target on his back this time around.

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“I was kind of terrified of losing my title,” Pamilton said.  

Pamilton didn’t go into finals with the leading time. That distinction belonged to his teammate DJ Zahn, whom Turk called one of the most improved athletes on the team this season.

“DJ told me, ‘I’m not gonna let you beat me, so if we’re gonna take this thing, we need to go one-two, however that’s gonna happen,’ and I think that’s what gave me my edge.” Pamilton said.

The two followed through on Zahn’s claim, finishing first and second, respectively, separated by only .29 seconds.

Other Illini with strong performances included junior weight thrower Davis Fraker, who finished sixth in the deepest event of the meet. He threw 20.99 meters, a school record and a distance that will improve his position in the national rankings. Another standout was the 4×400 team of Zahn, Cam Viney, Kenneth Allen and Pamilton, which finished third with a time of 3 minutes, 8.06 seconds after not finishing last year. Vanier Joseph also put forth an impressive performance, taking third in the 60-meter hurdles, only .15 seconds from first.

“There’s no question in my mind that they left every bit of energy and every ounce of effort, they left it all on the track, and that’s all we can ask of them.” Turk said. “I think we had 22 seasonal or personal bests this weekend, so that’s what you want, you want to go to the conference meet and have everyone hitting on their best performance of the year.”

The team will now move into its outdoor season, where Turk believes the team can fare even better.

“We’re built a little bit more for an outdoor team and some of the circumstances we faced this year with injury,” Turk said. “We have a chance to get people back at full strength outdoors.”

Chris can be reached at [email protected].