April 18, 2008
LAWRENCE, Kan. - The Illinois men's track and field team turned in three second-place finishes and advanced four athletes to Saturday's event finals on Friday at the prestigious Kansas Relays, while sophomore Jacob Nachel had a career-best 5,000m performance in California.
Running at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., Nachel qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships for the first time in his career with a personal-best performance in the 5,000m. The sophomore timed 14 minutes, 11.93 seconds and finished fifth on Thursday night.
Redshirt freshman Casey Fonnesbeck also recorded a personal-best, taking second in the shot put at the Kansas Relays with a distance of 54 feet, 10 inches.
Sophomore Dominique Worsley took third in the 100m preliminaries in Kansas, advancing to tomorrow's final with a time of 10.54. Worsley also anchored the Illini 4x100m relay, teaming with Pierre Bush, Brandon Gray and Cody Wisslead to finish in 42.53 and qualify for the final by finishing fourth.
In the 400m, junior Yawusa Kinda timed 48.90 to finish seventh in prelims and advance to the event finals, while freshman Dan Jones just missed qualifying, finishing ninth with a time of 49.24. Junior Gary Miller will run in the 400m hurdles finals after finishing eighth in the event and posting a time of 53.67.
Rob Pykosz was runner-up in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 9:30.71, while teammate Mike Kelley was 10th in the event with a time of 9:55.55. Freshman Will Schaeffer finished second in the pole vault "B" section with a height of 15'7".
Illinois concludes competition at the Kansas Relays tomorrow with finals in every event. Field events begin at 8 a.m., with running starting at 9 a.m.
