April 6, 2005
Illinois' women's track team travels to Los Angeles for the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational April 7-9. The Illini will compete on Friday and Saturday in a field that includes some of the elite track and field athletes from the U.S. and the world. Head coach Gary Winckler's squad will travel only field athletes, middle distance runners and sprinters. The meet will open Friday with the open events while the invitational events will be contested Saturday.
On Friday, the Fighting Illini multi-event athletes and pole vaulters will showcase their skills. Amanda Pintaro and Ashley Hanshaw will compete in the pole vault while Lauren Shimmon and Alondra Cooper enter the 100m hurdles, javelin and long jump. Rachael Gliottoni is scheduled to compete in the high jump, long jump and javelin with Kristina Jones running the 100m hurdles and competing in the high jump. Also competing Friday are Natalie Young in the 800m, Tiffany Nesfield in the 400m hurdles and Nina Henson in the long jump.
Saturday's schedule is heavy on sprinting for the Orange and Blue. Tiara Armstrong, Shanna Pickett, Yvonne Mensah and Camile Robinson will run the 4x100m relay with Carlene Robinson replacing Armstrong in the 4x400m quartet. Camile Robinson will also run the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles and Carlene is scheduled to race the 800m and 400m.
Pickett, also entered in the long jump, 400m and 200m, and Mensah, running the 200m and 100m hurdles, are Illinois' busiest competitors. On Saturday, Armstrong will also run the 100m and 200m, Young will run the 400m, Nesfield will line up in the 100m hurdles, Mariesa Greene will compete in the high jump and Jones and Henson will represent Illinois in the triple jump.
Highlighting the elite competitors are - 2004 Olympic Gold Medalists Joanne Hayes (100m hurdles) and Monique Henderson (4x400m relay), 2004 Olympians Alyson Felix (200m silver medalist), Sheena Johnson (2004 Olympics/4th-place/400m hurdles), Seilala Sua and Nicole Teter, and former World Champion in the heptathlete, Eunice Barber. The meet will also feature several collegiate teams as Stanford, Arizona, BYU, Hawaii, Utah State, CS Northridge, Cal Poly SLO, UC San Diego and Point Loma all plan to compete.
Complete meet results can be found at www.uclabruins.com.
