May 1, 2004

Final Stats

Illinois' women's track team competed today at the May Invite at the Illinois Track and Field Stadium in Champaign, Ill. On a cold, wet, overcast day the Illini posted 12 top-three finishes versus a field that included teams from Western Michigan, Indiana State, Southeast Missouri State and Indiana State.

"We were disappointed about the weather today," head coach Gary Winckler said. "We hoped that we were going to get some good things accomplished, we've had conditions like this in every one of our outdoor meets this year and we feel like were a little bit behind in some sense."

Freshman Camile Robinson had a strong outing, winning the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:01.33, taking fourth in the 100m hurdles in 14.46s and running a leg on the first place 4x100m relay team that posted a time of 46.45s. Joining her on the team was her sister Carlene, Yvonne Mensah and Shanna Pickett.

Mensah also won the 100m hurdles, clocking 13.75s while Carlene Robinson placed second in the 800m run in 2:15.31.

Sophomore Natalie Young took top honors in the 800m run with a time of 2:13.98 while Lindsey Reu was third in the 1,500m coming in at 4:41.45.

"Some people competed well today," Winckler said. "we had some decent marks and even some personal bests."

Another freshman, Kristina Jones had a busy day, taking second in the triple jump with a leap of 39'10.50", fifth in the 100m hurdles at 14.83s and throwing the javelin 31.14m.

Pickett won the long jump with an effort of 19'02.75" while Nina Henson was second in the event at 18"10.75". Junior Marie Hilmersson won the hammer throw with a toss of 57.27m.

In her final home meet of her career, senior thrower Katie LeVanti placed second in the hammer throw with a throw of 51.73m. She also was sixth in the discus at 37.30m.

"It was our home meet, we hoped for better weather," Winckler continued. "It was cold and we just tried to get through today without getting sore or hurt because we've got the conference meet coming up in two weeks. If we can just get some warm days before Big Ten's, it will help us out."

The Illini will take a weekend off before competing at the Big Ten Championships in West Lafayette, Ind. on May 14-16.