Feb. 1, 2003

Complete Results

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illinois freshmen didn't show their youth this weekend as Abe Jones, Andre' English and Tramell Smith all picked up victories with personal-best performances Saturday at the Carle/Health Alliance Classic at the U of I Armory Track.

Abe Jones opened up the Illinois afternoon by speeding to a victory in the 60-meter dash. Despite stumbling out of the blocks, Jones regained his footing and won the race in a career-best time of 6.88 seconds. Not too bad of a time considering it was Jones' first competition in over two seasons, dating back to his high school days at Rolling Meadows.

"I took the first-three steps and started to stumble," Jones said. "I knew I had to find another gear if I was going to win the race. That stumble obviously cost me some time, but I wasn't going to go down. I had to redeem myself for hitting that first hurdle in the 60-meter hurdle preliminary."

Redemption is what he got as he outran one of the Big 12's better sprinters, Missouri's Marquis Davis, who finished second in a time of 6.91 seconds.

Andre' English also got some redemption as he won the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.24 seconds. The Dayton, Ohio, native, who finished fourth in the hurdles in his first collegiate meet two weeks ago, defeated Indiana's Micah Harvey who finished second in a time of 8.26 seconds.

The third freshman to pick up a win was Tramell Smith in the 800 meters. Smith, the 2002 Illinois Class AA state champion in the 800 meters, ran the fastest 800-meter time of the year for Illinois, a 1:53.79 to win over Missouri's Neville Miller. Smith, who already ranks sixth in the Big Ten among 600 meter runners, moved into fifth in the 800 meters with his winning performance on Saturday.

"I went out a little fast during that first lap and when I heard my split, I started to relax, which might not have been the best thing," Smith said. "I saw that no one was really around me and I just started running my own race. This was my first 800-meter race since June, so I was excited to get to run this event."

Two of those sprinters, Jones and Smith, combined with Clint Cherco and Decatur, Ill., native Adrian Walker to give Illinois a win in the 1,600-meter relay. The Illini held of a hard charging Indiana team to earn the victory in a time of 3:15.89.

The final Illinois victory was earned by the Big Ten's top pole vaulter, Marty Keifer. After opening the season with a career-best vault of 17'00.75", Keifer responded by winning the event with another solid jump of 16'08.75". Keifer narrowly missed on his final attempt of a day while trying to establish another personal-best mark.

Other solid performances were turned in by senior Aaron Wahls who finished second in the mile with a time of 4:13.67, Josh Fournier who tied for second in the long jump and Eric Disilvestro who finished second in the pole vault with a career-best jump of 15'01.25".

The Illini men return to action next weekend when they host the Illini Classic on Feb. 8 at the U of I Armory Track in Champaign.