CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Fighting Illini women's track and field team has won all three University of Illinois Annual Athletic Awards including Athlete, Newcomer and Freshman of the Year as voted on by Illinois head coaches and DIA executive staff for the second-consecutive season.
Long jumper Tacoria Humphrey earned the title of Dike Eddleman Female Athlete of the year on the heels of earning All-America honors and Big Ten Champion status during both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
She won her Big Ten Indoor title with the third-furthest long jump in NCAA Indoor history, 6.94m (22-9 1/4). This mark is also the Big Ten, program and B1G Indoor Championships record. Following this performance she was named to The Bowerman Watch List, only the third Illini woman ever to be named to that prestigious list. She finished the indoor season with a silver medal at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the highest finisher ever in program history.
In the outdoor season she won her second-consecutive Big Ten Outdoor title to become a three-time Big Ten Champion. At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, she became an All-American in her fourth-place finish which is the highest finish in program history. She's only the program's second All-American in the event as the last was 43 years ago with Becky Kaiser on Illinois' first NCAA-qualifying team in 1982.
Humphrey is the fifth consecutive recipient from the Illini women's track & field program to earn the Eddleman award, and the third of coach Petros Kyprianou's three-year tenure. She is the 23rd winner overall from track since the Illinois Female Athlete of the Year award was first presented in 1977. Track & Field has the most selections among Illini women's sports programs.
Shot putter Abria Smith was named Illinois Newcomer of the Year from her incredible growth in her first year in the Illini throws program. Working with coach J.C. Lambert she improved her personal best by over three meters from 15.84m (51-11 3/4) to 18.92m (62-1). Her 18.92m heave is not only a program record, but it's the 14th-furthest throw in NCAA Outdoor history.
She finished the outdoor season as the shot put national runner-up, throwing 18.85m (62-1 1/4), to become the highest finisher ever in program history. A month prior she became the Big Ten Outdoor Champion in the shot put throwing 17.95m (58-10 3/4), the program's first B1G Outdoor Champion shot putter since Olympic medalist Ashley Spencer in 2009.
During the indoor season Smith earned All-America honors with her program-record throw of 17.99m (59-0 1/4) to place seventh at the NCAA Indoor Championships after a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships with a mark of 17.87m (58-7 1/2).
Smith is the second consecutive member of the Illini women's track & field program to earn Newcomer of the Year, joining 2024 honoree Darja Sopova.
Melissa Wullschleger was tabbed Illinois Freshman of the Year to go along with her Big Ten Freshman of the Year honor. She became a first-team All-American in the heptathlon with a program record 5,928 points in her fourth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She's the program's third-ever All-American in the event and the first since Carmel Corbett in 1996. As part of her school-record breaking score, Wullschleger also threw the program's third-furthest javelin, 44.20m (145-0), to propel her into the top-4 at the national meet.
A month prior to the national meet she took fourth in the heptathlon at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships with 5,749 points. During the indoor season she placed seventh in the pentathlon at the Big Ten Indoor Championships with the program's fourth-highest score of 3,984 points.
Wullschleger is the 11th Freshman of the Year for the Illinois women's track & field program and the second-consecutive one following teammate Elizabeth Ndudi's selection in 2024.
