April 30, 2005

Illinois men's track team capped off its most successful Drake Relays of the century Saturday at the 96th running of the meet in Des Moines, Iowa. The Fighting Illini boosted their number of Drake Relays records to three for the weekend and 131 overall. The total meet titles are the most by any school.

"We rebounded well today," head coach Wayne Angel said. "This was track and field as it should be at the University of Illinois. The sprint medley relay ran an outstanding race and the DMR had an awesome race, right down to the wire. It was a great meet."

Junior Abe Jones, who won the 400m hurdles yesterday, had a hand in each of Illinois' relay victories. In the distance medley relay, Jones teamed with Zach Glavash, Jeremy Kruidenier and Tim Hobbs to run 9:40.80 and win the event. Hobbs ran a 4:04 final leg and led the Illini to a narrow victory, defeating Minnesota by less than a second.

In the sprint medley relay, it was Jones, Nathan Vadeboncoeur, Adrian Walker and Tramell Smith who claimed the event title after clocking 3:16.05. Smith anchored the race with a 1:47.32 split while Walker was timed at 46.53 in his 400m leg.

"Abe had a phenomenal meet," Angel continued. "This is what I've always been looking for out of this team; the fighting spirit, the never give up attitude, always giving their best, they came through today like they were supposed to. The Illini are definitely back."

Jones also finished second in the 110m hurdles in a personal best time of 14.02. Freshman Nick Brown upped his personal best in the triple jump to 50'02.50" and placed seventh.

Complete meet results can be found at www.drakerelays.org.

The Illini are off until the Big Ten Championships, May 14-16 in Columbus, Ohio.