Jan. 18, 2003

Complete Results

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A pair of victories by Chequetta Bearfield in the 60-and 200-meter dashes and a personal-best performance by men's pole vaulter Marty Keifer highlighted Illinois' afternoon and lifted the Fighting Illini men and women to second-place team finishes at the season-opening Illinois Invitational competed Saturday at the U of I Armory Track in Champaign, Ill.

The Illinois women finished with 100.5 team points, eight points off the winning pace set by Ohio State, while the Illini men scored 110.5 points and were edged in the team standings by the Buckeyes who finished with 114 points. Illinois State finished third in both divisions, as the Redbird women scored 84 points and the ISU men totaled 84.5 points.

It was an superb start of the season for senior Chequetta Bearfield who won both the 60-meter and 200-meter sprints. While she cruised to the 200 meter title in a time of 24.82 seconds, Bearfield was dominant in the 60 meters winning with a time of 7.38 seconds, two-tenths of a second better than the rest of the field. In addition to being a personal-best performance for the Omaha, Neb., native, her 60-meter performance was a telling sign that she is returning to the form that saw her finish the 2000 season as one of the Big Ten's top sprinters.

"It was important to start out the season with a great opening performance," Bearfield said. "I've done a lot of work on the 60-meter races in practice and this is what I planned to do today. I'm healthy for the first time in two years and I expect a lot from myself. It's a good feeling right now, but this is just a step to get to where I want to go."

Also coming up with wins were senior Nicole Whitman and freshman Natalie Young. In addition to finishing second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.58 seconds, Whitman easily claimed the triple jump title with a mark of 41'05.00". Last season Whitman won the Big Ten crown in the triple crown and appears poised to begin her quest for a repeat.

"Nicole had a real solid meet all around," head coach Gary Winckler said. "She keeps progressing in the triple jump and she really had a great start in the 60 meters. Her reaction time was great, but her first-three steps of the race were off and that cost her. I was also pleased with the way our freshmen competed. I thought Natalie Young had a nice opening race. This is going to be a good group for us and they are going to continue to get better as the season moves forward."

Young, a freshman from San Antonio, Texas, won the the 600 meter title in her first collegiate race with a time of 1:35.14 and shows Illinois' improved depth in the middle distance events this season.

On the men's side, Marty Keifer turned in a career-best performance of 17'00.75" in the pole vault to not only win the event, but move into 10th on the all-time Illinois pole vaulting performers list. The Sugar Grove, Ill., native outlasted teammate Adam Pierson, who jumped a personal-best 16'06.75", to get the win. Illinois freshman Eric Disilvestro tied for fourth with a jump of 14'11.00".

"I stayed around and trained over the summer and that is paying off now," Keifer said. "In past seasons, I would always start the season with a mediocre performance and progress as the season went along. Now I have started out well, but I expect to progress like I have in the past."

Two other performers coming through for the Illini were senior Aaron Wahls and sophomore Clint Cherco. Competing against the top miler in North America (volunteer assistant Kevin Sullivan), Aaron Wahls finished with a career-best time of 4:12.56 to finished second overall to Sullivan, a former Olympian and a member of Team Canada. Sullivan won the race handily with a time of 4:07.00, but was unable to run as well as he would have liked due to an illness suffered late Thursday evening.

"I was on the couch all day on Friday because of it, but I really felt a lot better today and that's why I ran," Sullivan said. "I know it had an effect on me because I routinely run 4:01 and 4:02 in this event and it really hit me at the half-mile mark. However, this was good for me to come out and compete."

Sullivan will return to action in two weeks when he travels to Boston, Mass., to compete in a 1,500 meter race.

Just a sophomore, Cherco also scored valuable points for the Illini in the 800 meters finishing with a time of 1:56.26. Cherco edged out Ohio State's Nate Hutchinson (1:56.46) for the title as he established a personal-best time in the event.

The other marquee' event on the afternoon was the duel between Illinois women's volunteer assistant coach Jenny Adams and defending NCAA 60-meter hurdle champion Perdita Felicien. Adams, who finished second at the 2001 Goodwill Games in the 100 meter hurdles, won the event with a time of 8.08 seconds, while Felicien clipped the second hurdle and had her timing for the rest of the race thrown off.

###GO ILLINI###