April 22, 2010
DES MOINES, Iowa - A pair of former Illini were inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame on Thursday evening in a ceremony at Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main on the Drake campus. Former head coach Gary Winckler became the 77th inductee into the Drake Relays Coaches Hall of Fame, while two-time world champion Perdita Felicien entered the Drake Relays Athletes Hall of Fame along with Christian Cantwell.
Drake Relays Release on Winckler
Winckler came to Illinois from Florida State, where he was head women's track and field coach from 1982-85. After the Seminoles won the 1984 outdoor and 1985 indoor NCAA titles, Winckler was named NCAA Coach of the Year in consecutive years. In addition to those team titles, his squads also placed second in the 1983 and 1985 NCAA Outdoor Championships and the 1981 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Winckler's teams won 11 Big Ten Conference championships at Illinois from 1986 until his retirement in 2008. He was named Big Ten Coach of the Year 11 times.
Winckler saw his athletes win 10 individual titles and six relays championships at the Drake Relays. Celena Mondie Miller was named the outstanding woman performer of the 1988 Drake Relays after winning the university-college 100 meters and anchoring the Illini to victory in the 4x100 relay.
Winckler is recognized as one of the top hurdle coaches in the world. Perdita Felicien became a household name at the Drake Relays after being named the outstanding women's performer in 2002 and 2003. Felicien also anchored Illinois to a world record in the shuttle hurdle relay in 52.85 seconds at the 2001 Drake Relays. Felicien and teammates Susanna Kallur, Carmee Williams and Jenny Kallur were named as co-recipients of the outstanding women's performer at the 2001 Drake Relays.
Under Winckler's leadership, Illini athletes won 265 individual Big Ten titles and 46 earned All-America recognition.
Over his career at both Illinois and Florida State, Winckler has turned out over 300 All-Americans, and has coached athletes to eight collegiate record-breaking performances, including Felicien's 60 hurdles indoor time of 7.90 seconds set in 2002.
Winckler coached 13 athletes who reached the Olympic Games in the sprints, hurdles or relays and have won gold, silver and bronze medals. Dating back to 1992, athletes coached by Winckler have appeared in every World Championships and Olympic Games. Included in that group are former Illinois greats Felicien, Yvonne Harrison, Susanna Kallur and current Illini head coach Tonja Buford-Bailey.
Winckler was named 2007 Big Ten Outdoor Coach of the Year after leading the Illini to the team title and the 2007 USTFCCCA Midwest Region Outdoor Coach of the Year.
Illinois achieved back-to-back fourth-place finishes at the 1995 and 1996 NCAA Outdoor Championships and a sixth-place national indoor finish in 1996. Prior to coming to Illinois, Winckler directed Florida State to the 1984 NCAA Outdoor national title and the 1985 NCAA Indoor crown.
Drake Relays Release on Felicien
Felicien won the Drake Relays women's university-college 100 hurdles title in 2000, 2002 and 2003, setting a meet record of 12.92 in the prelims in 2001 which still stands. She also captured the invitational 100 hurdles at the 2003 and 2004 Drake Relays.
At the 2003 Drake Relays she became the first athlete to sweep the university and special invitational titles in the same event (100 hurdles) at the same meet on a Saturday afternoon. She began by beating a field of collegians in the 100 hurdles (13.43) at 1:45 p.m. then won a victory (13.00) against world-class competition in the special invitational 100 hurdles at 4:24 p.m.
For her efforts Felicien was named the outstanding women's performer of the 2003 Drake Relays. She also was named the outstanding women's performer at the 2002 Drake Relays after winning the university-college 100 hurdles and running the anchor leg on the winning shuttle hurdle relay.
Felicien shared the outstanding women's performer award at the 2001 Drake Relays along with her Illinois teammates Camee Williams, Jenny Kallur and Suzanna Kallur after anchoring the 4x100 shuttle hurdle relay to a world record of 52.85. During Friday's preliminaries in the women's university-college 100 hurdles Felicien set a meet record and world best of 12.92.
As a freshman at Illinois, Felicien anchored Illinois to the shuttle hurdle relay crown at the 2000 Drake Relays, while also winning the women's university-college 100 hurdles.
Felicien closed out her collegiate career at Illinois in 2003 by being named the Big 10 Conference Female Athlete of the Year. She also defended her title in the 100 hurdles at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships. As a sophomore at Illinois, Felicien became the first indoor national champion in Illinois history when she won the 60 hurdles at the 2002 NCAA Indoor Championships in a NCAA record time of 7.90.
Drake Relays Day One Recap
A trio of Illini distance runners began competition on Thursday at the 101st annual Drake Relays, led by a third-place effort in the 5,000m by senior Elizabeth Boyle, who ran a personal-best time of 16:51.77. Sophomore Kristin Sutherland placed 11th behind Boyle in the 5,000m with a time of 17:18.43, while junior Chantelle Groenewoud finished fifth in the 3,000m steeplechase at 10:38.27.
"Overall, today went really well," distance coach Jeremy Rasmussen said. "Chantelle opened up faster than she did last year and felt really good. It was great to see Elizabeth run an outdoor PR, so we hope to continue to make strides in that direction. Kristin has a hip that is bothering her right now, but she ran faster than she did two weeks ago."
Illinois resumes competition at the Drake Relays on Friday at 9:32 a.m. with the 4x100m relay. Live results and a full recap can be found on fightingillini.com following the day's action.
