CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The 2024 women's track and field squad ended the season with the most First-Team All-Americans in the Big Ten with nine (five indoor and four outdoor). Among those All-Americans was a national champion and Olympic qualifier in the high jump, Rose Yeboah.
Yeboah cleared the school and NCAA Outdoor Championships meet record mark of 1.97m (6-5 1/2) to become the women's program's first-ever national champion in a field event. During the indoor season she placed eighth (1.88m (6-2)) to earn All-America honors.
Two other Illini women earned First-Team All-American status in pole vaulter Tori Thomas and triple jumper Darja Sopova.
Sopova is coming off a runner-up finish in the triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a school record, 14.01m (45-11 3/4). She placed sixth in the event at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Thomas recently collected All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with her seventh-place finish vault, 4.40m (14-5 1/4). At the NCAA Indoor Championships, she placed sixth with the same clearance.
Bara Sajdokova earned All-America honors in the high jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships with her fifth-place finish (1.88m (6-2)). Elizabeth Ndudi placed seventh in the long jump as a freshman at the NCAA Indoor Championships to earn her All-America honor, 6.35m (20-10).
Amber Simpson rounded out the crew with her eighth-place finish in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, 67.73m (222-2).
