Chambana Sun

The Illinois track and field teams competed at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Indianapolis, concluding the event with notable performances. The women's team secured second place with 82 points, while the men's team finished in 10th place with 29.5 points.

Petros Kyprianou, director of track, field and cross country, expressed mixed feelings about the outcome: "Obviously, coming into this weekend I wanted to win it all again," he said. "In this new Big Ten, it's like a mini NCAA Championships meet so I'm still proud of the way our women battled and earned second place."

One of the highlights for Illinois was Tacoria Humphrey's long jump of 6.94 meters (22-9 1/4), which is the third-best mark in NCAA history. The women's high jumpers also performed well, with Rose Yeboah earning silver by clearing 1.89 meters (6-2 1/4), Bara Sajdokova taking bronze at 1.86 meters (6-1 1/4), and Morgan Smalls finishing fourth.

On the men's side, Tyler Sudduth achieved a silver medal in shot put with a throw of 19.73 meters (64-8 3/4), ranking eighth nationally and securing his spot at the national meet. Viktor Morozov took bronze in triple jump with a mark of 15.81 meters (51-10 1/2).

Halle Hill captured bronze in the women's 3000m race with a time of 9:11.59, marking the program's second-fastest time for that event.

Kyprianou noted there were many pleasing performances but acknowledged that more work remains before nationals: "There were a lot of performances this weekend I was pleased with, but we have a lot of work to do still before nationals in two weeks."

The upcoming NCAA Indoor Championships are scheduled for March 14-15 in Virginia Beach.