CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Director of Illinois track, field and cross country Petros Kyprianou announced the addition of Eliza Kraule from Rice. Kraule became an All-American in the pentathlon this past March at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a personal-best 4,353 points, a mark that would shatter the program record by nearly 200 points.
A native of Riga, Latvia, she spent the past four seasons at Rice, where she became a pentathlon and heptathlon Conference USA champion during the 2023 season. Last month, she topped the podium at The American Outdoor Championships in the heptathlon with a personal-best score of 5,774 points. Her personal-best score would shatter Carmel Corbett's 1995 program record by over 100 points (5,658).
A two-time NCAA Championships qualifier, Kraule bolsters the women's combined events crew, joining the top U.S. incoming freshman, JaiCieonna Gero-Holt, as a training partner.
