University of Illinois
Big Ten Outdoor Championships
Illini Complete Successful Day Two Of Big Ten Championships
May 13, 2006 | Men's Track & Field
May 13, 2006
EAST LANSING, Mich. - As the weather continued to put a damper on the Big Ten Championships meet in East Lansing, Mich. Saturday, the Fighting Illini men's track and field team managed to stay determined and focused putting them in good position for Sunday's conclusion of the conference championships. At the end of day two the Orange and Blue stand in eighth place with a total of 12 team points. Wisconsin leads the league with 64.50 and Minnesota (62.50) and Ohio State (32) rounding out the top three on the scoreboard.
With the first two days of competition under their belt, the Illini have had three athletes with scoring performances and eight qualifications for Sunday's finals. With those figures, head coach Wayne Angel is very optimistic heading into the final day of competition.
"We are down about 13 points from where I predicted us finishing today," Angel said. "But we got everyone in the finals that we thought would get in. Today went well despite the weather. I think we are in a good position to accomplish our goal tomorrow of finishing in the top two.
Leading the way for Illinois on Saturday was freshman Dominique Worsley with two individual performances that qualified him for tomorrow's 100- and 200-meter finals. Worsley also recorded a qualifying performance with the 4x100-meter relay.
Worsley began the day teaming up with senior Andre English, junior Nathan Vadeboncoeur and sophomore Pierre Bush to post the best 4x100-meter relay performance on the day. The freshman then went onto win both of his heats in the 100-meter (10.55) and 200-meter (21.14) prelims. Both times were good for second-place finished overall.
"The weather has been awful the past two days," Worsley said. "Everyone is telling me I should be used to it because I am from New Hampshire, but it is going to affect you no matter where you're from. I tried to conserve some energy in today's races and I still did well so that gives me some confidence heading into tomorrow. I still have a lot in my tank for the finals tomorrow, so I am very excited."
Angel was very satisfied with the poise and confidence the young freshman showed in all three races.
"Dominique simply ran great for us today," Angel said. "From the 100-meters all the way up I think we are in a great position to do what we wanted to do, and positioning is what it is all about."
Along with his first-place performance with the 4x100 team, English had an impressive performance in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.84 (Wind aided 0.8) to qualify him for the finals.
Senior Abe Jones also did well in the hurdle events with a first-place finish in his 400-meter hurdles heat. His time of 52.68 was good for a third-place finish overall and qualified him for tomorrow's finals.
Vadeboncoeur and Jones led the Illini in the 400-meter run as they both won their heats with qualifying times. Vadeboncouer took second overall with a regional qualifying time of 46.80 and Jones finished third overall with a time of 47.34.
Wrapping up the day's short distance competitions was senior Tim Hobbs who qualified in the 800-meter prelim with a time of 1:50.63. His performance was good to finish third in his heat and fifth overall.
Illinois racked in four scoring performances on the day with two coming from junior Dan Stock and sophomore Nick Brown.
Stock finished eighth overall in the 3,000-meter final with a time of 9:11.50 to secure one team point for the Illini. Brown's sixth-place performance in the long jump (7.19-meter; 23-07.25) put three more team points on the board for the Orange and Blue.
Junior Ed Mastny and sophomore Andrew Zollner had Illinois' other two scoring performances as they concluded the conference's decathlon competition Saturday. Mastny collected two points for the Illini as he finished seventh overall with a total of 6,182 points. Zollner placed eighth overall with a score of 5,991 points to add an additional team point to Illinois' total.
Mastny's best performance of the day came in the pole vault with a third-place vault of 3.65-meters (11-11.75). Zollner's best on the day came in the 1,500-meters with a time of 4:51.40 to finish fifth in the event.
Senior Abe Jones feels that momentum is on Illinois' side after day two of the conference championships and the way Coach Angel prepared his athletes will lead the Orange and Blue to success on Sunday.
"A lot of things changed today," Jones said. "So there is a window of opportunity for a lot of teams. Every school is scratching and clawing for points. Coach Angel structured this meet so that every athlete has the opportunity to focus on their own events without putting too much pressure on any one certain individual. Everyone is out here feeling comfortable and having a good time."
On Sunday, May 14 the 2006 Big Ten Championship Meet continues at 11:40 a.m. with the women's triple jump. All results from today's competition can be found on www.bigten.org.
