The University of Illinois men’s and women’s track and field teams will send a record 18 individual qualifiers to the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 13-14. This group includes 13 women, the highest number in school history, and five men, matching the team’s 2006 mark for male qualifiers. These figures do not include relay participants; only top-16 finishers in individual events are counted.
According to the program, the 13 women qualifiers represent more than any other school nationwide. Petros Kyprianou, now in his fourth year as director of track, field and cross country, has increased the program’s representation at nationals each season. Last year, he set a previous record with 15 qualifiers.
Among those heading to nationals is Oluwatomilayo Akintunde (weight throw), who placed sixth at the Big Ten Championships with a throw of 22.18 meters and is seeded eleventh nationally. Sophia Beckmon (long jump) qualified with a national-leading mark of 6.85 meters set at the Razorback Invitational and recently won both gold in long jump and bronze in the 60m at the Big Ten meet.
JaiCieonna Gero-Holt is competing in both high jump and pentathlon after earning silver at Big Tens in pentathlon (4,400 points) and qualifying for high jump with a leap of 1.88 meters. She holds seeds No. 4 (pentathlon) and No. 7 (high jump).
Other women’s qualifiers include Katharina Graman (triple jump), Mercy Honesty (triple jump), Meagan Humphries (pentathlon), Lucie Kienast (pentathlon), Jordan Koskondy (weight throw), Phethisang Makhethe (weight throw), Mia Morello (pole vault), Elizabeth Ndudi (long jump), Romi Tamir (triple jump), and Rose Yeboah (high jump). Many achieved their best marks this season during conference meets or invitationals.
On the men’s side, Jip de Greef qualified for heptathlon with a score of 6,019 points at his first event this season. Cody Johnston broke a longstanding school pole vault record by clearing 5.70 meters at Tyson Invitational; he enters as No.7 seed.
Viktor Morozov won Big Ten triple jump title with a leap of 16.38 meters while Luuk Pelkmans set a new Illinois heptathlon record on his debut with over six thousand points, earning him third seed status nationally.
Zavien Wolfe also competes in triple jump after posting one of Illinois’ top marks this season.
The University of Illinois Fighting Illini Men’s Track and Field team highlights team spirit as well as individual achievement across its events (official website). The program contributes to university athletic tradition while offering student-athletes opportunities for competition, development, academic success (official website), indoor/outdoor participation (official website), coaching focused on performance (official website), and competition within NCAA Division I athletics as part of the Big Ten Conference (official website).
“Fourth-year director of track, field and cross country Petros Kyprianou continues to improve the program each year as he shattered his own program record for qualifiers he set last season with 15, 11 of them women.”
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