Meet Results | Highlights | Coach Garner Interview | Richartz Interview
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Fighting Illini women's track & field team hosted 10 teams at the UI Armory in the Illini Classic. Illinois defended its home turf, winning the event with 145 points. Northern Illinois was second with 103 points, while Eastern Illinois was third with 85 points.
"I think the past two weeks have been good developmental meets," said head coach Ron Garner. "We came in and got a lot of quality work. We had a better effort as a team this week. We had a good meet last week, but we saw across the board kids come out and compete and improve. I want to thank Scott Jones, Randy Gillon and Bryan Carrel. They prepared the team, and I thought they did a great job of getting people ready from last week to this week."
The Illini pole vault group had great success on the runway Saturday afternoon. After missing all of last season, Stephanie Richartz appears to be shaking off the rust quite nicely. She won the event with a clearance of 4.21m (13' 9.75"), just shy of her school record. Jennifer DeBellis, the second-best vaulter in school history, finished second, upping her personal best to 4.00m (13' 1.50"). Richartz and DeBellis are the only two vaulters in Illini history to clear that mark. Sara McKeeman also had a strong showing in the event, finishing fourth.
"I think the vault group really did an exceptional job today," noted Garner. "(Assistant coach) Bryan (Carrel) really has that group rolling right now."
On the track, Breeana Coleman was once again a key contributor for the Orange and Blue. After qualifying for the finals of the 60m hurdles with the fastest time in the preliminary round, Coleman held true to form and won the event for the third consecutive meet, posting a time of 8.39. She nearly added the 60m dash title to her win in the hurdles, but she was edged at the line by .003 seconds, settling for second. Coleman finished off a tough sprint trio with a third-place showing in the 200m.
In the 400m, Nicole Choquette grabbed the title one week after moving into Illinois' top-10 list in the 600m. Choquette won the event with a time of 57.48. Jasmine Berry and Miranda Marry finished third and fifth, respectively.
Lindsey Rakosnik added another title to Illinois' haul, winning the 600m run in a time of 1:35.20. Britten Petrey added yet another win in the 800m, finishing in a time of 2:13.21. Chloe Schmidt was right behind Petrey, placing second in 2:14.96.
Alyssa Schneider grabbed the final event title for the Illini, winning the mile for the second meet in as many weeks. She broke the tape in 4:54.61, while teammate Denise Branch grabbed third in the race with a 5:02.66 performance.
Other top performers for the Orange and Blue included Kandie Bloch-Jones, Hanna Winter and Mariah Smith. In the high jump, Bloch-Jones finished second after being beat in a jump-off. Winter was Illinois' top performer in the 3000m, finishing fourth, while Smith held honors of top Illini in the weight throw, claiming fifth. The Illini 4x400m relay of Choquette, Marry, Kymbriona Taylor and Berry finished closed out the meet by finishing second, just behind the winning team from Northern Illinois.
"Everyone did a great job," continued Garner. "I am pleased with where we are at but we still have plenty of room to improve."
The Illini will be back in action next weekend when they head to the Rod McCravy Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky. That meet begins on Friday, Jan. 23 and continues through Saturday, Jan. 24.
"Next week is going to be another step up," explained Garner. "It will be the best meet in the country. We'll see Oregon, the SEC schools and other top Big Ten schools. It will be the next step and a wake up for us to see really where we are at. We will be challenged in every area."
