CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Fighting Illini men’s and women’s track and field teams are set to begin the 2023 outdoor season on Fri.-Sat. March 24-25 in Los Angeles, Calif. March 24th will hold the Bob Larsen Distance Invitational starting with field events at 2 p.m. and distance events at 7 p.m. CT. March 25th with be the Rafer Johnson and Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invite starting with field events at 1:30 p.m. and track events at 3 p.m. CT.
Olivia Howell heads into the outdoor season fresh off of a National Title in the indoor mile and her third straight Big Ten indoor mile title. She became the first women’s indoor national champion since Angela Bizzarri in 2010 (3,000m). She earned Women’s Big Ten Indoor Track Athlete of the Year and USTFCCCA Midwest Region Track Athlete of the Year.
Tyler Sudduth is fresh off of a First-Team All-American honor in the weight throw, his first in that event. He improved his best mark a whole 3.5 meters throughout the season.
First year Director of Track, Field and Cross Country Petros Kyprianou already has a National Champion not even a year on the job. There were 28 new or improved top-10 program marks set in Kyprianou’s first indoor season with two of them being school records.
On Jan. 14 Jessica McDowell broke Ashley Spencer’s 11-year-old school record in the 300m dash to make it 37.13 now. On Feb. 25 the men’s 4x400m relay team of Jason Thormo, Kashief King, Tadeas Placek and Robert Williams won the Big Ten Title and broke the 8-year-old school record to make it 3:06.24 now.
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