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Illini Split Up for Tyson Invite and Iowa State Classic
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Sophomore Stanley Azie is one of five Illini headed to the Tyson Invitational this weekend.
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Feb. 11, 2010
Tyson Invitational Schedule and Heat Sheets 
Iowa State Classic Schedule and Heat Sheets
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illinois men's track and field team splits up for a pair of meets this weekend Feb. 12-13, with five athletes heading to the Tyson Invitational and the majority of the team traveling to the Iowa State Classic. The Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., features 13 of the Top 25 teams in the nation and is held at the Randal Tyson Track Center, which is the same site as the NCAA Indoor Championships. The Iowa State Classic boasts nine teams ranked in the top 50 nationally at the Lied Recreational Center in Ames, Iowa. Both meets consist of competition on both Friday and Saturday.
"We are taking a handful of our top athletes to Arkansas, and the rest of the squad will face tough competition at Iowa State," interim head coach Mike Turk said. "We've made great progress, but I keep challenging our guys to elevate their performances. We want to keep improving each week and build momentum as we head into the Big Ten meet."
All-Americans Andrew Riley and Greg Shroka make the trip to Arkansas along with juniors Matt McHugh and Oz Lifshitz and sophomore Stanley Azie. Riley will compete in the 60m dash, an event he has improved his time in each week of the season, and the 60m hurdles, where he looks to improve upon his provisional qualifying mark set at the Carle/Health Alliance Classic. Shroka is back in action after not competing last week and continues his quest at an automatic qualifying mark and the school record in the high jump.
McHugh, who broke the school record in the weight throw at the Carle/Health Alliance Classic, will compete in the event on Friday, while Lifshitz will take part in the triple jump on Saturday. Azie joins Riley in the 60m dash on Friday and also will run the 200m on Saturday.
"Stanley is getting close to hitting that provisional mark in the 200m," Turk said. "Stanley runs much better on the bigger tracks than a smaller track, but we kind of felt like it would be a good opportunity for him to prepare for Big Tens by running on the smaller track."
After tallying a number of personal bests at the Meyo Invitational, the rest of the Illini look to continue that trend at the ISU Classic. Coming off a victory in the 300m last week, freshman Bai Kabba is poised for another stellar performance, as he will run the 200m and 400m. Junior Dan Jones is slated to run the same two events and is nearing a provisional qualifying time in the 400m.
Senior Brian Beaird, who almost notched a provisional qualifying time in the 800m at the Meyo Invitational (1:51.10), will run the event again this week, while fellow senior Scott Phelps, who turned in a PR in the 800m at Notre Dame, will compete in the 600 yards race. Four distance runners are listed to run the mile, led by freshman Kyle Engnell and senior Mike Murray, and five are scheduled to run the 3,000m, paced by junior Dan Kremske, who smashed his personal best in the event in South Bend, and the Mickow brothers.
Other Illini to keep an eye on are freshman Josh Zinzer in the 60m and 200m, junior Alex Baldwin and freshman Josh Hodur in the pole vault and junior Shane Daniel in the 400m. Turk also hopes to see his squad drop their time in both the 4x400m relay and the distance medley relay.
Full results and a recap of the meet can be found on fightingillini.com after the meet. Live scoring and a live stream (subscription required) for the Tyson Invitational are available at ArkansasRazorbacks.com. Next week, the Illini travel to Charleston, Ill., for the EIU Friday Night Special on Feb. 19.
