Full Results | Updated All-Time List

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Jesse Reiser won the 3,000m premier race and David Kendziera set a new lifetime best performance in the 60m hurdles final, as the Fighting Illini men's track and field team wrapped up competition at the Black & Gold Premier. The Illini set five personal-best performances across the two-day meet in the UI Recreation Building.

In the 3,000m race, Jesse Reiser clocked the eighth fastest time in Illinois history, timing 8:08.04 to win the event, while Billy Magnesen placed fourth with a 8:16.99 personal-best time.

"They both really ran really competitively, especially Jesse," said Mike Turk of the 3,000m race. "He ran with a determination that we really wanted to see out of him. It was a huge step forward for him and a huge confidence booster moving forward. He pretty much led the race from about 800 meters in through the rest of the race. I thought Billy put himself in a good position, and the effort in his race was really good. He laid everything out there, and it's the kind of race I want to see from our distance guys."

Reiser moves ahead of former Illini Jannis Toepfer's 8:08.85 time set back in 2014 and just behind Jeff Jacob's 8:08.02 mark set in 1986.

Competing away from the team at the John Thomas Terrier Invite in Boston, Illinois distance runner Dylan Lafond clocked the seventh-fastest indoor mile time in Illinois history, a 4:02.13, to win his heat. The time moves the redshirt senior ahead of Mike Patton's 4:02.30 time in 1985.

In the 60m hurdles, Kendziera shaved a tenth of a second off his 60m hurdles prelim time in the final, clocking a personal-best 7.77 time to finish runner-up to Iowa's Aaron Mallet (7.76). The 7.77 performance improves upon his 7.80 time at the Border Battle three weeks ago.  

"He's about where he needs to be. He's putting himself onto the national list and getting close to a mark that'll get him in to NCAA Championships," Turk said of the Illini hurdler. "The thing that was good was that his prelim race wasn't good, and he wasn't happy with it. He made the adjustments and ran a fine final race. After last year and the lack of confidence he had in his health, to see where he's at now, and to see him go after things and have confidence, is a big thing. I'm sure he's got bigger performances coming pretty soon."

In the 4x400m relay, the Illini ran its fastest race of the season, as Joe Haight, Matt Burns, Kenneth Allen and David Kendziera combined for a time of 3:11.80. Allen and Kendziera both clocked sub-47.00 times in the final two legs of the race, but fell short of Iowa's 3:10.93 winning time.

"Joe [Haight] is showing himself to be a reliable leadoff leg, which is important ingredient to our success," said Coach Turk. "I thought Matt Burns came back around in the second leg and had as good of a relay leg he's ran indoors since he's been at Illinois. Those guys kept us in the race, and then Kenneth Allen and David [Kendziera] both closed down and made it competitive. Iowa has a really good 4x400m relay and we were right there with them. We're rounding into shape pretty well."

Other notable performances came in the 400m dash, where Matt Burns clocked a personal-best time (49.48), and in the shot put, as saw Michael Hyc marked his second-best throw of the season (57'0.25") and Matsen Dziedzic marked his best throw this season (52'6.5").

Yesterday, Hyc set a lifetime-best mark in the weight throw with heave of 66'5" (20.24m).

Up next, the Fighting Illini will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska next weekend to compete in the Frank Sevigne Husker Invite, February 3-4.