TORRANCE, Calif. – Illinois All-American hurdler David Kendziera beat 2012 Olympic Champion Aries Merritt (Nike) by 0.02 seconds, finishing in 13.47, to win the 110-meter hurdles at the Mt. SAC Relays, as the Illinois men's track and field team concluded action in California.

"This was a really special performance for Dave," said head coach Mike Turk. "Collegians don't get many opportunities to run against the pros, and, to beat someone of the quality of Aries Merritt is special. It's something Dave will always remember."

Remaining undefeated in the event this season, Kendziera timed 13.47 in the elite section of the event, competing against the top collegiate and professional hurdlers entered in the event. Kendziera edged Merritt (13.49) at the line to win his fifth high hurdles race of the season. In addition to winning gold at the London Games, Merritt also set the current world record for the event with a time of 12.80.

Just 45 minutes after the gun went off for his high hurdles race, Kendziera returned to take second place in the elite section of the 400m hurdles. Posting the top collegiate finish, Kendziera set a season-best performance of 49.39 to finish runner-up to Shawn Roe (GW Express). The 49.39 mark is over a half-second faster than his previous best time of the season, a 49.92 mark at the Jim Click Shootout on April 7, and is the second fastest time in NCAA Division I this season.

Kendziera has yet to be beaten by a collegiate athlete in either the high hurdles or intermediate hurdles this season.

Also competing in the elite section of completion, junior Devin Quinn nearly tied his personal record in the 100m and placed third in his 200m heat.

In the 100m dash, Quinn timed 10.12 to take fifth out of the 18 sprinters entered. Just a hundredth off his facility record at home last Saturday, Quinn nearly duplicated the performance despite operating with a slower tail wind. After having a 3.4 meter-per-second wind last week, Quinn had just a 1.0 m/s wind at his back in the Mt. SAC final. Nike's Ronnie Baker won the event with a time of 9.97.  

"The same [as Kendziera] can be said about Quinn. Dave got a win, but Devin really made a big statement this weekend," said Turk. "I mentioned last week that it's great that he's performing the way he has, but he will need to show that against better competition. This weekend he made a bit of a name for himself."

Quinn returned later in the afternoon in the 200m, finishing third in his heat and second overall among collegians with a time of 20.82.

In addition to Kendziera and Quinn, the Illini also contested both sprint relays at Mt. SAC on Saturday. In the 4x100m relay, the Illini finished in 39.88 and taking second place in their heat, beating Iowa (40.00) and taking seventh overall. The 4x400m relay unit concluded the meet with season-best time of 3:10.52, two seconds faster than their 3:12.53 time at Jim the Click Shootout on April 7.

On Friday, redshirt junior Jonathan Wells set the third best long jump in long jump in program history at the Mt. SAC Relays, marking 25'10.25" (7.88m) on his fifth attempt to win the competition. Other notable performances included Jacob LaRocca's outdoor personal best pole vault (17'0.25") at the Beach Invite and a trio of season-best times from Illini 1500m runners (Brahm, Lee and O'Callaghan) at the Bryan Clay Invite.

Up next, the Illini will wrap up the regular season with its annual trip to Des Moines, Iowa for the Drake Relays, April 26-28, where the Illini have won four of the last five Hy-Vee Cup titles.

For complete coverage of Fighting Illini Track and Field, visit FightingIllini.com, follow the Illini on Twitter (@IlliniMTrack and @IlliniWTrack) and Instagram (@IlliniMTrack and @IlliniWTrack) and like Fighting Illini Men's Track and Field and Fighting Illini Women's Track on Facebook.