Bates is great in Illini victory

CHAMPAIGN – Melissa Bates won the 200- and 400-meter dashes and also anchored Illinois' winning 1,600 relay as the Illini women's track and field team won Saturday's nine-team Carle/Health Alliance Classic at the UI Armory.

Bates' time in the 400 (54.74 seconds) provisionally qualifies her for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Aja Evans also provisionally qualified in the shot put, throwing 50 feet, 6 inches to win convincingly.

Illinois (154) beat runner-up Miami by 54 points.

"What we wanted to see from people is improvement, and that's what we got today," Illini coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said.

Elizabeth Boyle (3,000), Kayla McCaugherty (high jump) and Alecia Beckford-Stewart (pentathlon) also were victorious for Illinois.

In men's track & field:

Illini dominate. Andrew Riley won three individual events – 60, 60 hurdles and long jump – as the Illini claimed 10 events en route to a convincing victory in the seven-team Carle/Health Alliance Classic at the UI Armory.

Riley's time in the 60 hurdles (7.91 seconds) was an NCAA provisionally qualifying mark.

Greg Shroka (high jump), Scott Phelps (800), Casey Fonnesbeck (shot put), Alex Baldwin (pole vault), Oz Lifshitz (triple jump), Bai Kabba (400) and Boyea Lockett (200) won individual titles for the Illini.

"It was a great team effort," interim head coach Mike Turk said. "Our guys showed a lot of improvement and took a big step forward today. I was really pleased with the results."

Matt McHugh set the school record in the weight throw (63 feet, 2 3/4 inches) in a runner-up finish. The previous record was 60-4 set by Peter Knaus in 2004.

In women's swimming & diving:

Knight lights it up. Freshman Kathleen Knight won the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events to help the Illini close their home schedule with a bang, winning 14 of 16 races en route to a 181-111 victory against Illinois State.

"Overall, we were pretty consistent throughout the meet," Illini coach Sue Novitsky said. "We were a little sluggish on the first relay, but I was happy with how we were able to shift back to the competitive mode. We had a lot of great races today, and a lot of people made improvements on what we've been working on in practice. As a team, we're continuing to head in the right direction."

Lauren Frendreis swam a career-best time in the 50 freestyle, winning in 25.00 seconds. Erin Rodriguez posted a season best in the 500 free in 5 minutes, 4.79 seconds.

Meghan Mason (100 free), Amy Forsberg (200 free), Anna Johnson (100 backstroke), CeCe Marizu (200 back), Corey Kasten (100 breaststroke), Amy Johnson (200 breast), Jen Ivarson (400 individual medley) and Britni Fisher (1-meter diving) won individual events for the Illini.

In women's gymnastics:

Illini fall. Nicole Cowart won the all-around and Allison Buckley won the vault but it wasn't enough as the No. 25 Illini fell to No. 2 Oklahoma 196.650-194.425 at Huff Hall on Saturday night.

Comments

Add a Comment