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 Sophomore Dan Jones will run the 200m, 400m and 4x400m relay at the Iowa State Classic this weekend.
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Feb. 12, 2009
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois' men's track and field team has one more chance to impress before the Big Ten Indoor Championships, competing on Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14 at the Iowa State Track and Field Classic in Ames, Iowa. Over 80 teams from around the NCAA will be competing, including Big Ten squads Minnesota, Michigan State, Purdue and Wisconsin.
Following the multi-events in the morning, field events begin at 1:30 p.m. on Friday with the running starting at 3 p.m at the Lied Recreation Athletic Facility. Action starts early on Saturday, with the mile scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.
"This will be a great opportunity for our guys to improve on their performances and boost their confidence leading into the Big Ten Championships in two weeks," head coach Wayne Angel said. "The field at the ISU Classic will be one of the best assembled in the country. Our guys will be rested, so I hope to see numerous breakthrough performances."
Fresh off of defending his 500m title at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York last weekend, All-American Gakologelwang Masheto will face another tough field this week in the 400m. Masheto will look to improve his national ranking in the event, where he currently stands No. 12 with a time of 47.06. On Saturday, he will race in the first heat against three other athletes who have provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 400m in Arizona's Bobby McCoy, New Mexico's Jarrin Solomon and Kentucky's Jose Acevedo.
The Illini will also aim to improve their NCAA ranking in the 4x400m relay, where the squad of freshman Hendrik Maartens, junior Gary Miller, sophomore Dan Jones and Masheto are currently No. 8 with a time of 3:09.97. Two of the seven schools with faster 4x400m times than Illinois will be competing in the meet in Florida and Kentucky.
Miller will also run the 800m, where he just ran a season-best time of 1:51.85 at the New Balance Invitational. He will likely face the toughest field he's seen all season in attempting to hit the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:51.10. Junior Jacob Nachel will run the 5,000m on Saturday after a solid performance in the 3,000m in New York.
Other athletes the Orange and Blue will look for top performances out of include Brian Beaird (800m), Graham Farnsworth (800m, mile), Andrew Riley (60m hurdles), Jeremy Stevens (3,000m), Cody Wisslead (60m hurdles) and Andrew Zollner (pole vault).
A small squad of athletes will compete next Friday at the EIU Friday Night Special in Charleston, Ill. in preparation for the Big Ten Indoor Championships in State College, Pa. from Feb. 28-March 1.
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