Howell Three-Peats Big Ten Indoor Mile, Men’s 4×400 Breaks School Record in Win

Full Results

GENEVA, Ohio – The Illinois men’s and women’s track and field teams finished out the Big Ten Indoor Championships on Saturday, Feb. 25 from the SPIRE Institute. Senior Olivia Howell won her third straight Big Ten Indoor Mile Title with a 4:35.48. With this win today she is now a 5x Big Ten Champion. She became just the fourth Illini woman in history to win three-straight Indoor Big Ten Titles in the same event (Tonja Buford; 55mH 1991-93, Carmel Corbett; pentathlon 1993-95 and Collinus Newsome; shot put 1995-98).

The men’s 4x400m relay team of senior Jason Thormo, redshirt senior Kashief King, freshman Tadeas Placek and senior Robert Williams clocked a new school record of 3:06.24 en route to winning the event. This is the first 4x400m Indoor Big Ten Title for the men since 2015.

“This weekend is not what we hoped it to be,” said Director of track, field and cross country Petros Kyprianou. “We had some individual highlights that cannot go without mention. The men’s 4x400m was clearly a big highlight, winning the title and setting a new school record. On the women’s side Olivia showed that she is a consistent force in the Big Ten. Hopefully we can see if she makes the cut for the NCAA’s.”

The women’s 4x400m relay team of freshman Madison Hardamon, senior Danni Stoughton, freshman Ashley Oliver and senior Olivia Howell placed sixth (3:42.97).  

Freshman Viktor Morozov placed sixth in the triple jump, 15.56m (51-0 3/4). Redshirt senior Kashief King crossed sixth in the 400m dash (47.33). Senior Alex Babbington also placed sixth in the high jump, 2.06m (6-9). Graduate student Bret Dannis rounded out Illini scoring with a eighth place finish in the 60m hurdles (7.84).

“Everyone who scored in the championships will be rewarded as we head into outdoor season. I am hoping that the youngsters on this team continue to blossom and come together as a team. We do have a lot of work to do. Our qualifiers will try to make some noise at the NCAA’s and get ready for outdoors which I feel we are a lot better team outside.”

MULTI-EVENTS

Senior Aiden Ouimet improved his school’s third-best heptathlon to 5,505 points, he placed fourth overall today. He earned bronze in the pole vault with a 4.60m (15-1) clear. He also registered a pair of new personal-best in the 60m hurdles (8.20) and the 1000m (2:47.67).

Freshman