Jan. 17, 2004

Final Stats

The Illinois women's track and field team opened the 2004 indoor season with a victory at the Illinois Open Saturday at the UI Armory, scoring 135.5 points. Illinois State was second with 83.5 points and Lindenwood took third with 67 points.

The Illini were led by their underclassmen on the track, as freshman Yvonne Mensah won two events, the 60m dash, in a time of 7.50 seconds and the 60m hurdles, in 8.53 seconds, classmate Cassie Hunt won the one mile run, finishing in a blazing 4:51.02. Hunt's time is the fastest by an Illini miler since former All-American Tara Mendozza ran 4:45.68 in 2000.

Sophomores Natalie Young, Kimetha Williams and Audrey Lickhart were victorious in their events, Lickhart ran the 800m in 2:15.79, Young ran 1:36.09 to win the 600m and Williams finished the 400m in a time of 57.16. For Williams, the time represents a new personal best, topping her old mark of 58.21.

Not to be outdone, juniors Jaime Turilli and Shanna Pickett also took home wins in their events. Pickett ran 25.09 in the 200m and Turilli came in at 10:09.64 in the 3,000m run. Turilli's time is a new personal record, eclipsing her old time by almost 15 seconds.

The Orange and Blue also performed very well in the field, coming away with victories in the triple jump and the weight throw, while finishing second in the high jump, triple jump and long jump.

Sophomore Nina Henson earned top honors in the triple jump with a jump of 12.03 meters. The Tuscon, Ariz. native was second in the long jump with a leap of 5.37 meters. Joining Henson in the win column was junior thrower Marie Hilmersson whose toss of 16.72 meters was enough for the victory in the 20 lb. weight throw.

"It was a good first meet," head coach Gary Winckler said. "We had really good performances by our freshmen. Our freshmen and sophomores had a great meet today. Cassie Hunt, that's the fastest mile we've had run here in a number of years, Yvonne Mensah winning two events, Kristina Jones, Sammie Polock, we just had a lot of good things that happened for a first meet. Overall, I was pretty pleased with what I saw and we're looking at two more weeks to prepare for the next meet and I think we're off to a good, solid start."

The Illini will not compete next weekend and are back in action on January 31, as they host the Illinois Invitational.

Complete results can be found at www.fightingillini.com.