Jan. 30, 2002

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Last week the women hosted the Illinois Women's Invitational, this week it's the men's turn as they host the Carle/Health Alliance Invitational on Saturday Feb. 2.

The meet will be a four-team event with defending Big Ten Champion Wisconsin, Southern Illinois and Ball State traveling to Champaign to take on the Illini.

It will be the second time in as many meets that the Illini and Badgers have hooked up. At last weekend's Wisconsin Elite Invitational in Madison, Wis., Illinois won three events and tied for a fourth as the team had a strong showing in its return to action after a one-week layoff.

Bernard Grady (shot put), Michael Hall (200m) and Kyle Kopatz (high jump) all claimed individual titles, with sprinting standout Anthony Moorman tying for first in the 60m dash.

This week's meet will mark the final home indoor meet for a group of seniors and the team is ready to send them out in grand fashion.

"This will be the last home meet of the season for some of our seniors and we have tried to stress that to the team," sprints coach Erin Tucker said. "We want these guys to come out strong and perform well. We always look at the progression of our athletes and we feel like we are moving in the right direction. We have had a good week of practice and I think our seniors are ready to go out with a bang."

The meet will also mark the return of Illinois wide receiver Brandon Lloyd to the track. Lloyd set out last season after suffering a broken leg in a freak accident. Now, the standout high jumper returns to give the Illini one of the conference's premiere high jumpers.

At the Adidas Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. , the women's team will take a different approach heading into the meet then a week ago. The Illinois Women's Invitational on Jan. 26 had the team element included and that led the Illini to wins over three top-25 opponents. This week at the Adidas Invitational, there won't be any team scoring so each individual will be looking to improve on their season-best marks with the hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Indoor National Championships on March 8-9.

"Since this is not a team-scored event, we are just trying to improve on our best performances this season," head coach Gary Winckler said. "This is a performance meet for us whereas last week we were trying to win the meet. We are traveling about 20 people, so we'll have a number of people out there with the goal of improving and they will have the opportunity to do it against some great competition."

The Adidas Invite is a two-day meet beginning on Friday, Feb. 1 with the 800m, long jump, mile, pole vault, 4x400m relays and weight throw competitions taking place. All other events will run on Saturday.

The men's event is on Saturday, Feb. 2, and begins at 10:30 a.m. with the weight throw. The first running event is the trials of the 60m dash and is scheduled for noon at the Armory Track.