University of Illinois
Drake Relays
Women's Shuttle Hurdle Relay Repeats As Drake Champions
April 27, 2002 | Women's Track & Field
April 27, 2002
DES MOINES, Iowa - The conditions made it virtually impossible for Illinois to register any record-breaking performances, but the women's team still picked up a victory in the shuttle hurdle relay and swept the top-four places in the 100m hurdles, while the men won their second relay title of the meet as Tim Hobbs anchored a win in the Sprint Medley Relay during the final day of competition at the 93rd annual Drake Relays, Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa.
For the first time since 1991, rain poured on the Drake Relays, but it didn't dampen the Illinois performances. The relay of Jenny Kallur, Camee' Williams, Susanna Kallur and Perdita Felicien won their second consecutive shuttle hurdle relay title at Drake with a time of 53.95 seconds. The group wowed the near sellout crowd as they won the race by more than three seconds ahead of runner-up Oklahoma. The group was scheduled to run in a preliminary round of the race, but heavy rains forced its cancellation, leading to two heats of the finals.
"I think we owed it to these fans to race," Camee' Williams said. "The conditions were bad, but that wasn't going to stop us. There were supposed to be four heats of the shuttle hurdle relay, but there were only two in the finals because of the weather. We saw ourselves on the cover of the program and on the drinking cups, so we knew we had to race. This is a once in-a-lifetime chance to race at the Drake Relays and we weren't going to miss it."
Just an hour later, Felicien and the rest of the shuttle hurdle relay returned to the track to sweep the top-four places in the 100m hurdles, with Felicien claiming her second victory of the meet. The Pickering, Ontario, native won the title with a time of 13.34 seconds to outlast teammates Susanna Kallur (13.42), Camee' Williams (13.73) and Jenny Kallur (13.79).
"It's definitely a great feeling to be able to double in the 100m hurdles as well as the shuttle hurdle relay," Felicien said. "It was very cold out and I wasn't sure if I was going to race or not because we were running against the wind and we're really not used to that. But it's good to win at Drake again and its great that our team was able to sweep the race. It just shows you how great our team is to be able to sweep the 100m hurdles at the Drake Relays."
Despite winning two races already, Felicien almost picked up a third title as the Illinois 4x100m relay team of Felicien, Chequetta Bearfield, Nicole Whitman and Shanna Pickett finished second to Georgia after running a time of 44.94 seconds.
On the men's side, the Drake Relays may be known as the meet where freshman Tim Hobbs came of age. After leading the 4x800 meter relay team to a win on Friday, Hobbs anchored the Sprint Medley Relay of Anthony Moorman, Kendall McCroy, Josh Harford and himself to a victory in a time of 3:22.04, just .09 seconds ahead of second-place Oklahoma.
On Friday, the Elmhurst, Ill., native took the baton in the 4x800m relay with Illinois in eighth place. When he finished his leg, the Illini were in the lead and eventually won the race one leg later. On Saturday, Hobbs once again took the baton, but this time the Illini were in fourth place in their heat. Despite running in near freezing temperatures, Hobbs finished his leg of the 800 meters in a time of 1:50.90, to edge out Moses Washington of Oklahoma and give Illinois it's first Sprint Medley Title since 1959.
"I'm not a guy that likes to lead," Hobbs said. "I saw I was in fourth and I give all the credit to my teammates. They put me in a great spot. I new I could do it, I just gave it everything I had. It's a great feeling to be able to do this. You never know if you'll have the chance to do it again, so I am just soaking it up right now."
Also competing well for the men was senior Charles Burton. Burton finished fourth in the triple jump thanks to a season-best leap of 50'03.25".
For more information on the Drake Relays, as well as a complete listing of results, you can visit the Drake Relay's home page www.drakerelays.com.
For more information on the Illinois men's and women's track teams, please visit our website at www.fightingillini.com.
###Go Illini###
