March 24, 2011
SEC/Big Ten Challenge Schedule 
| Live Results
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Following a successful indoor campaign, the Illinois men's track and field team will begin the outdoor season by competing along with Indiana, Ohio State and Purdue at the inaugural SEC/Big Ten Challenge on Saturday, March 26 at Mississippi State's newly renovated Carl Maddox Track. The four Big Ten squads will square off against Auburn, Georgia, Mississippi and host Mississippi State, with points being awarded to the conference's top-four finishers in each event and pooled together to determine a conference winner of the challenge's championship.
"This is a nice opportunity for our guys to open up the outdoor season at a great facility against great competition," interim head coach Mike Turk said. "This is the first meet on this new facility, so it is special for us to be invited for this event."
Mississippi State coach Al Schmidt came up with the meet concept in hopes of bringing an exciting meet to MSU that kept alive the true nature of team competition. The meet will use a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring format, and scoring positions can come from any heat or section of an event. The conference showdown will kick off at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning with the hammer throw followed by the start of the running events at 1:15 p.m.
Freshman Matthew Bane, the Big Ten indoor pole vault champion, will make his outdoor debut for the Illini in the event, while senior Matt McHugh, the hammer throw school-record holder, will begin his final season of competition for Illinois in the event. Other Illini to watch this weekend include junior Stanley Azie and senior Azeez Shogbuyi in the sprints along with juniors Kyle Engnell and Colin Mickow in the distance events.
The Illini will send a competitive crew to Starkville, but will be without national champion Andrew Riley and second-team All-American Davis Fraker, who are recovering from the indoor season. Another group of potential scorers in Cody Klein, Cody Wisslead and Malcolm Taylor will be out due to illness.
"We are a little depleted for this competition with a couple guys still recovering from indoors plus another group forced to stay home due to illness," Turk said. "We have challenged everyone on the trip to take advantage of this opportunity and to step up. I'm excited to see who rises to the occasion and I know we will see several personal-best performances."
Full results and a recap can be found on fightingillini.com after the completion of the meet. The Illini will travel south again next weekend, as they will head to Baton Rouge, La., for the LSU Invitational on Saturday, April 2.
