Stewart, Choquette Win Bronze Medals at B1G Indoor Championships

Illini score five events on final day of Big Ten indoor meet

Women's Track & Field February 24, 2018

Stewart, Choquette Win Bronze Medals at B1G Indoor Championships

Illini score five events on final day of Big Ten indoor meet

GENEVA, OH – 60m hurdler Jayla Stewart and 800m runner Nicole Choquette each won bronze medals at 2018 Big Ten Indoor Championships at Spire Institute on Saturday afternoon. Combining for 12 team points, Stewart and Choquette were joined by first-time point-scorers Rebecca Craddock (mile) and Chisom Nwoko (400m) and the 4x400m relay. Minnesota won the women's Big Ten team title, while the Illini tallied 26 points to place 10th.

"They're competing and they've changed the attitude," said head coach Mike Turk following the meet. "It's a completely different mindset that they have, and you can see it when they go out there to get on the starting line. You can see it in their races. They're starting to believe in what they can do. And, when you start to believe in what you can do, then you're not afraid to take that effort and lay it out there. You're not afraid to take risks, and that's what they're starting to do. We can build on that."

Graduate student Nicole Choquette capped off her career at the indoor conference meet with a third medal in middle distance events. After winning gold in the 600m as a sophomore and silver in the 800m as a redshirt junior, Choquette added a bronze medal to her haul on Saturday. Entering with the seventh-best time in the Big Ten, the Urbana, Illinois native timed 2:08.54 in the final, just eight hundredths behind silver medalist Kelsey Harris (Indiana).

Moments after Choquette earned her bronze medal, 60m hurdler Jayla Stewart earned a bronze medal of her own. The first Big Ten medal for the Illini junior, Stewart clocked a season best time in the event for the second straight race. Stewart advanced to the final on a seasonal best time of 8.31 on Friday afternoon.

Freshman Rebecca Craddock put the first track point on the board for the Illini by placing eighth in a deep women's mile field. After setting a personal record time on Friday to advance into the final, Craddock timed 4:48.80 in the final on Saturday to earn a point in her first career conference meet.

The Orange and Blue received two more points in the next track final as sophomore Chisom Nwoko earned two points for the team with a seventh-place finish. Despite getting her leg tangled with Nebraska's Kierra Griggs, Nwoko recovered to score her first career points at Big Ten Championships. Nwoko advanced to the final on Friday with a time of 53.26 that set a new personal record and ranks second on the Illinois all-time list.

Already having scored for the Orange and Blue in open events, Nwoko and Choquette returned to the track to lead off and anchor the 4x400m relay. Joined by freshmen Ololade Ayoola and Amira Aduma, the quartet clocked Illinois' fastest time of the season, 3:37.91, to finish sixth.

On Friday, Illinois scored four points each in the pole vault and long jump. Redshirt junior Sara McKeeman set a personal record vault of 13'4.5" (4.08m) to place fifth, while junior Briana Driver jumped an indoor personal best 19'7" (5.97m) to take fifth in the long jump.

Up next, the Fighting Illini will begin preparation for the 2018 outdoor season. Illinois kicks off the outdoor slate March 23-24 at Southern Illinois in the Bill Cornell Spring Classic.

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Team Scores:

1.Minnesota – 91.5

2.Purdue – 80

3.Ohio State – 75

3.Indiana – 75

5.Iowa – 74

6.Penn State – 70

7.Wisconsin – 61

8.Michigan – 60

9.Nebraska – 47.5

10.Illinois – 26