Illini Men’s Track Adds Four Performances to NCAA Finals

4x100m relay qualify, Kendziera, Wells and Quinn add events

Men's Track & Field May 27, 2018

Illini Men’s Track Adds Four Performances to NCAA Finals

4x100m relay qualify, Kendziera, Wells and Quinn add events

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Fighting Illini men's track and field team wrapped up NCAA West Prelims with seven qualifying performances for NCAA Finals in Eugene, Oregon next week after adding four to its haul on Saturday. The Illini 4x100m relay advanced for the second time in four years, while David Kendziera, Jonathan Wells and Devin Quinn each added a second individual event qualification.

Full Results

"We had a really rough Big Ten meet, and had some people a little beat up and a little hurt," said head coach Mike Turk. "I was concerned coming in here that momentum wasn't really on our side. I just think we have a great group of people that just have a lot of desire, and they showed they're made of and I'm proud of them. They showed a lot of resiliency and competed really well."

The seven performances, and six athletes, heading to Eugene, Oregon is the second most for the Illini since the program sent 11 performances to NCAA Finals in 2015 when the team tied for 10^th place.

Illinois' trifecta of redshirt senior David Kendziera, redshirt junior Jonathan Wells and junior Devin Quinn each qualified for Eugene in two events this weekend. Kendziera returns to TrackTown USA in both the 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles after earning First Team All-America honors in the events last season. Wells also returns to Eugene, the second straight season qualifying in the high jump while also adding the long jump this season. A first time qualifier, Quinn reached the national meet in both the 100m and 200m sprints as well as the anchor on the 4x100m relay.

"They were all great," said Turk of the three Illini individuals. "We have three guys obviously, especially with Dave [Kendziera], Jonathan [Wells] and Devin [Quinn] are all qualified in multiple events. They're outstanding athletes; they really carry us. As they go, we go. I can't thank them enough for the effort, and they're just tremendous people to have around."

After falling two spots shy of qualifying last year in Austin, the sprint relay returns to NCAA Finals for the first time since the program's historic 2015 relay. With senior Mo Maat, a holdover from the 2015 squad, leading off, freshman Jason Shannon and junior Joe Haight carried the stick around to Devin Quinn who crossed the finish line at 39.71 to earn one of heat two's automatic qualifying spots. Overall, the time ranked sixth among the 12 qualifying relays.

"We take great pride in our relay," said Turk. "Over the last 10 years we've run under 40 [seconds] seven of the last eight, or eight of the last nine years, and we've run under 40 this year with four different groups of people. I'm really proud of them. It's fun for the guys, and it's fun for the team. It makes our sprint program pretty well known when we get our relay [to Eugene], and I'm really proud of them."

The relay advancement marks the sixth time since 2010 that Eugene will have some Orange and Blue in the NCAA Semifinal. The Illini earned First Team All-America honors in both 2011 and 2015, highlighted by a bronze medal at the 2011 meet.

Among the individual qualifiers, Kendziera leads the team with his third appearance. The second straight year that the dual-threat hurdler has reached Eugene in both hurdle events, Kendziera set a season-best time of 13.40 in the high hurdles on Saturday to join his 50.30 qualifying time in the 400m hurdles on Friday. Just one thousandths of a second off his personal record from last season's NCAA Semifinal, Kendziera' 13.40 time led the West qualifiers by 0.21 seconds.

Wells is also back to NCAA Finals for the second consecutive season, returning in the high jump while adding the long jump for the first time. Leaping 25'3.5" (7.71m) on Thursday night, Wells became first Illini to advance in the long jump since 2007. On Saturday, the reigning Big Ten champion advanced to Eugene as one of the 12 remaining jumpers when the competition concluded after 7'1" (2.16m). Wells entered the competition at 6'11" (2.11m) after passing the opening two heights.

Though not qualifying, Wells also competed in a track quarterfinal on Saturday, timing 14.01 in the 110m hurdles to finish 15^th overall, three spots shy of qualifying for Eugene.

The youngest of the Illini trio, Quinn is going to NCAA Finals for the first time in his career where he'll contest two open sprint events and anchor the relay. After timing 10.28 to advance in the 100m on Friday night, Quinn won his 200m quarterfinal heat with a time of 20.63 that bested his heat-winning 20.67 time from Friday's first round and ranked third among the 12 qualifiers.

NCAA Finals begin on Wednesday, June 6, with track semifinals and select field event finals. Track finals and remaining field event finals will be held on Friday, June 8. Afternoon events will be streamed live on ESPN3.com, while the session can be seen on ESPN. Tickets for NCAA Finals can be purchased through the NCAA.

For complete coverage of Fighting Illini Track and Field, visit FightingIllini.com, follow the Illini on Twitter (@IlliniMTrack and @IlliniWTrack) and Instagram (@IlliniMTrack and @IlliniWTrack) and like Fighting Illini Men's Track and Field and Fighting Illini Women's Track on Facebook.

Illini Notes:

The Illini advanced six athletes and seven performances to NCAA Finals: Jonathan Wells (long jump, high jump), Devin Quinn (100m, 200m) and David Kendziera (110m hurdles, 400m hurdles) and 4x100m relay
The seven performances qualified for NCAA Finals is the most since 2015 when the Illini qualified 11 performances and tied for 10^th in Eugene
For the fifth straight year, and nine of the last 10, the Illini are sending a hurdler to Eugene, Oregon. David Kendziera will be making his third appearance overall and second straight. Kendziera earned First Team All-America honors in both hurdle events in 2017
David Kendziera qualified in both the 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles for the second straight year. Kendziera placed third in the high hurdles and seventh in the intermediate hurdles last season
The 4x100m relay qualification marks the sixth time since 2010 that the Illini 4x100m relay has reached Eugene.
David Kendziera's 13.40 time in the 110m hurdles is his fastest of the season and second fastest of his career. Kendziera's personal record came in the NCAA semifinal last season, clocking 13.39
Devin Quinn becomes the first Illini 100m sprinter to reach NCAA Finals since Andrew Riley won the 100m NCAA title in 2012 and the first 200m sprinter to reach Eugene since Brandon Stryganek in 2014.
Quinn is the first Illini to qualify for NCAA Finals in three events sine D.J. Zahn reached Eugene, Oregon in the 400m, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay.
Jonathan Wells becomes the first Illini to advance to NCAA Finals in the long jump since Nick Brown advanced in 2007 in both the long jump and triple jump
Wells advanced to his second career NCAA Outdoor Finals after earning Second Team All-America honors last season. Wells also qualified for NCAA Indoor Championships in 2015 and 2016.
Matsen Dziedzic improved his No. 2 Illinois all-time hammer throw to 209'4" (63.80m) on Thursday in his final attempt of competition