CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Illinois men’s and women’s track and field teams qualified 12 individuals (nine women and three men) to the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 7-9. The championships will take place at The Track at New Balance in Boston.
Petros Kyprianou – in only his second year as the Illini’s director of the track, field and cross country programs – tied the school record for most individual NCAA Indoor Championships qualifiers with 12, originally set back in 1995 (seven women and five men).
The nine individual women are the most ever in school history, with the next closest coming in 1996, when the team had eight qualifiers. The three men are the most since the 2015 season, when they sent four. This stat excludes adding in members of a 4x400m or distance medley relay squad; only those top-16 in their respective event are reflected in these historic representation marks.
HOW TO WATCH THE ILLINI (All times CT)
MARCH 7
The national meet is slated to begin Thursday with only the men’s and women’s weight throw competition taking place. This is due to a conflict with The Track at New Balance, and the NCAA decided to move these competitions up a day as a result. The men will begin first at 5 p.m., when fans can see Big Ten champion Tyler Sudduth, and the women follow at 7 p.m., when Amber Simpson will represent the Orange and Blue.
MARCH 8
Big Ten Champion Aiden Ouimet is set to begin his heptathlon on Friday at 8:30 a.m. with the 60m, transitions to the long jump at 9:30 a.m., starts at 10:45 a.m. in the shot put and finally finishes day one at 12:15 p.m. in the high jump.
Tori Thomas kicks off the women’s field events in the pole vault at 5 p.m. The trio of Sophia Beckmon, Tacoria Humphrey and Elizabeth Ndudi begin the long jump at 6 p.m.
Jessica McDowell is the lone track qualifier out of the bunch, and she runs in the 400m semifinals at 6:30 p.m. to close out day two.
MARCH 9
Ouimet starts the final half of his heptathlon on Saturday with the 60m hurdles at 9:30 a.m. He moves to the pole vault at 10:30 a.m. and closes out the heptathlon with the 1000m at 2:30 p.m.
Kam Garrett can be seen in the men’s high jump competition at noon. Big Ten champion Bara Sajdokova and teammate Rose Yeboah will start the women’s high jump at noon as well. Big Ten champion Darja Sopova competes in the triple jump…
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