|
Illinois Invitational Changed to Sunday, April 15
April 11, 2007
Meet Schedule (PDF)
The Fighting Illini men's and women's track and field teams will host the Illinois Invitational on Sunday, April 15 at the UI Track and Soccer Complex. The original date of the meet was April 14, but due to poor weather conditions forecast for Saturday, the meet was postponed until the next day. This will be the only home outdoor track meet the Illini will host this year. Assistant Coach Mike Turk will travel separately to Colombia, Mo., with Ed Mastny, Greg Shroka and Andrew Zollner to participate in the Audren Walton Combined Events Track Meet to compete in the decathlon. The Illini women are looking to continue to improve on their success at the Texas Relays last weekend, highlighted by twin sisters Camile and Carlene Robinson placing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 400m hurdles. The women's distance runners will make their outdoor debut this weekend after training hard the past six weeks in preparation for the outdoor season. "This week we are looking forward to competing at home once again," women's track and field head coach Gary Winkler said. "This will be our first opportunity to get the whole team together for competition this outdoor season and we are looking forward to some good races, jumps and throws." Meanwhile, the Illinois men hope the elements are not as harsh as they were last weekend in Charleston at the EIU Big Blue Classic. Senior Jon Houseworth seemed to revel in the bitter cold temperatures as he took first place in the 1500m with a time of 4:01.95. "We're excited about competing in front of a home crowd," men's track and field head coach Wayne Angel said. "We hope to have some more regional qualifiers this weekend." In 2006, the Illinois women ran away with the annual meet as they posted two regional qualifying marks and eight first-place finishes, three of which where recorded by senior Yvonne Mensah. The men also had great success, racking up three regional qualify marks and four first-place finishes. Other teams scheduled to compete at the Illini Invite include Depaul, Lincoln University, Lindenwood University, Olivet Nazarene University, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Saint Louis University. Competing only in women's events will be Northern Illinois. Field events will begin at 9 a.m., while running events start at noon. Live results and a full recap will be available on fightingillini.com.
|
