May 14, 2006

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The No. 18 Fighting Illini took to the track Sunday for the final day of the 2006 Big Ten Track and Field Championships in East Lansing, Mich. on the campus of Michigan State University. The Illini ended up finishing fourth overall with a total team score of 104.66. Minnesota ran away with the conference crown (152.50) while Michigan (134.66) and Penn State (115.00) took second and third, respectively.

A little disappointed with the way his athletes failed to take control of certain situations, head coach Gary Winckler felt his team was given the opportunity to finish higher than fourth.

"I'm not going to sit here and say we had a bad meet," Wicnkler said. "We just didn't take advantage of some opportunities the way we needed to. The thing about a winner is that a winner competes every day, and we didn't compete the way we are capable of competing today. Things could have been different. I don't think anyone could have stopped Minnesota; they had a great meet, they have a lot of great athletes and they deserve all the credit. But I feel we could have gotten much closer to second place than where we ended up."

Junior Camile Robinson was the star of the Illinois squad today as she won the Big Ten title in the 400-meter hurdles, placed third in the 100-meter hurdles and helped both Illini relays to second-place finishes.

"Camile had a really good meet for us," Winckler said. "To finish third in the 100-meter hurdles is far better than what we expected. We expected her to win the 400-meter hurdles and help both relays finish where they ended up. Overall, she did a terrific job."

Camile Robinsons' 400-meter hurdle victory (57.79s) was the second Big Ten individual title of her career. At the 2004 conference championships, Camile won the Big Ten title in the event when she set a new Big Ten Championships record of 57.52.

Junior Carlene Robinson helped the Illini sweep the top two spots in the 400-meter hurdle event as she finished second behind Camile with a time of 58.15.

Junior Yvonne Mensah had a solid third day of the championships with a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash (11.62) and a 13th place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 11.61 (wind -1.0).

"I know a lot of people have really high expectations in Yvonne," Winckler said. "She really didn't have a bad meet for us. You got to keep in mind that she was in six events and it's hard to come through in six events especially when the weather was what it was like all weekend. I think yesterday being out in the cold for four hours really took its toll on her."

Junior Kristina Jones led the Illini in the triple jump with a regional qualifying leap of 12.34-meters (wind aided-1.4) to finish second overall. Senior Nina Henson was Illinois second-best finisher in the event with a mark of 12.30-meters.

The Illini now have two weeks off to prepare for the 2006 Mideast Regional Track and Field Championships. The Regional Championships are hosted by the University of Tennessee and begin on Friday, May 26.

All results from this weekend's Big Ten Championships can be found on www.bigten.org.

Final Team Results
1. Minnesota		152.50
2. Michigan		134.66
3. Penn State		115.00
4. Illinois 		104.66
5. Ohio State		66.00
6. Purdue			53.33
7. Indiana		52.00
8. Iowa			49.33
9. Wisconsin		48.50
10. Michigan State		41.00