Chambana Sun

The Illinois track and field team is preparing for the NCAA Indoor Championships, scheduled for March 14-15 at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Va. The team is sending a record 15 individual qualifiers, comprising 11 women and four men, to compete across 16 events.

This year marks a significant achievement for the women's team, as they have sent the most individual qualifiers in school history. Additionally, they rank second nationally this season in terms of women's qualifiers, trailing only Arkansas. Petros Kyprianou, the director of track, field, and cross country in his third year, has continued to advance the program by surpassing his previous record of 12 qualifiers set last season.

Among the women qualifiers is Sophia Beckmon in the long jump. Beckmon qualified with a leap of 6.71m (22-0 1/4), making her seeded No. 4. Tacoria Humphrey also qualified for the long jump with a mark of 6.94m (22-9 1/4), setting records at multiple levels and earning her a No. 2 seed.

Lucie Kienast will compete in the pentathlon after achieving a program-record score of 4,405 points (4,428 after conversion) and is seeded No. 4. Jordan Koskondy and Phethisang Makhethe are set to compete in weight throw events with seeds No. 12 and No. 5 respectively.

Bara Sajdokova will participate in high jump seeded at No. 13 while Morgan Smalls enters the long jump event seeded at No. 16. Abria Smith qualified for shot put with a seed of No. 12.

In addition to these athletes, Darja Sopova (long jump), Tori Thomas (pole vault), and Rose Yeboah (high jump) will also represent Illinois with seeds ranging from No. 5 to No.14.

For the men's team, Jip de Greef will take part in heptathlon competitions seeded at No.2 while Viktor Morozov qualified for both long jump and triple jump events with respective seeds of No.10 and No.5.

Cody Johnston will compete in pole vault holding a seed position at No .7 whereas Tyler Sudduth enters shot put competition as seed number eight following his performance that earned him silver recently during Big Ten Indoor Championships

The championships promise intense competition as these athletes strive towards their best performances on national stage this weekend