Feb. 14, 2008
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illinois men's track and field team hopes to carry its success from last week into competing in the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa on Friday, Feb. 15 through Saturday, Feb. 16. Field events begin at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, with running preliminaries starting at 2 p.m. The ISU Classic, which hosts over 90 teams, will resume on Saturday beginning at 9:25 a.m. and run all day.
The Illini are coming off of a successful trip to New York last weekend, where they finished 10th out of 49 teams at the New Balance Invitational and recorded two first-place finishes. Junior Gakologelwang Masheto set an NCAA record in winning the 500m, while sophomore Jacob Nachel took the 5,000m title. Additionally, senior Nick Brown provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the triple jump.
Masheto, who was named Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week for the second consecutive time on Tuesday, will take this weekend off from competition.
"Our main focus this weekend will be racing and evaluating people in areas where we have holes to fill," head coach Wayne Angel said. "Each week we are having solid improvements in our individual performances, which is very encouraging. At this point in the season, we need to be mentally tough and ready to mix it up."
Junior Dominique Worsley barely missed an NCAA provisional qualifying time in the 60m last weekend, and will look to do so at Iowa State. Worsley currently ranks third in the Big Ten in both the 60m and 200m. Brown will only compete in the long jump this weekend, where he owns the best mark in the conference (24 feet, 6 /14 inches). Other athletes looking for impact performances include junior Andrew Zollner in the pole vault, sophomore Casey Fonnesbeck in the shot put and Eugene Ellis, Brandon Gray and Yawusa Kinda in the 400m.
In addition to the Illini competing at the ISU Classic, Nachel and senior Trent Hoerr will travel with distance coach Wendel McRaven to compete in the Husky Classic in Seattle. Both Hoerr and Nachel will run the 5,000m on Saturday.
Illinois will compete next weekend at the Eastern Illinois Friday Night Special on Feb. 22 before heading to the Big Ten Indoor Championships on March 1-2 in Madison, Wis.
