CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Fighting Illini men’s and No. 5 women’s track and field teams travel north to Ann Arbor, Mich., for the Big Ten Outdoor Championships on May 10-12.
The women’s squad looks to win its first Big Ten Outdoor title since the 2007 season. If they do emerge victorious this weekend, it would mark the first time since 1995 that the Illini women are champions both indoors and outdoors in the same season.
The men’s squad is coming off a seventh-place finish indoors, its highest finish since the 2015 season, when they placed second. They have not finished higher than sixth outdoors since 2017, which they aim to top this weekend.
BECKMON MAKES HISTORY
Freshman long jumper Sophia Beckmon became the first Illinois athlete in program history to earn USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week honors during the outdoor season.
She earned this accolade on the heels of leaping an Olympic-standard long jump of 6.86m (22-6 1/4) at the Fighting Illini Tune-Up on Saturday (May 4).
The Oregon City, Ore., native shattered the Big Ten, Illinois and Demirjian Park records and equaled the American U20 record set by Alyssa Jones of Stanford last year at the NCAA Championships. Beckmon and Jones both sit at No. 11 on the all-time collegiate leaderboard with the farthest jumps by freshmen in collegiate history.
TOP WEEKEND PERFORMANCES
The Illini had a busy May 4 on their home track after hosting the Fighting Illini Tune-Up. In addition to Beckmon’s mark, five other school records were bested.
The first one to fall was in the women’s high jump, in which junior Bara Sajdokova and redshirt junior Rose Yeboah walked away sharing the new record of 1.91m (6-3 1/4).
A few events later, sophomore Azariyah Bryant sped to the new program-record 100m, clocking in at 11.24. This snaps the 26-year-old record set by Aspen Burkett (11.28) in 1998. In addition, she sprinted the program’s third-fastest 200m a few moments later (22.92).
Freshman Eleftherios Kontonikola chucked the program’s best javelin throw of 69.27m (227-3). He broke Brad Lawton’s 68.63m (225-2) record that stood for 31 years originally set in 1993.
Junior Tori Thomas ended the meet by finally clearing the pole vault school record after coming close and attempting many times before. She set the new program record at 4.52m (14-10) after chasing Stephanie…
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