CHAMPAIGN – Wayne Angel resigned Thursday as head coach of the Illinois men's track and field team, citing a desire to spend more time with his wife and family.

Angel, a 1982 UI graduate and former Illini track athlete, was in his seventh year as head coach at his alma mater. His resignation was effective immediately. Mike Turk, a fifth-year Illini assistant who has coached the field events, was named interim head coach for the 2010 season.

"It was a very tough decision," Angel said by phone Thursday afternoon. "The last couple years, it's really taken a pretty heavy toll in terms of time and energy on the family. It's hard for a person to be a family person when you've got one mission in your mind, and that is to be the best you can be in the Big Ten, and that's how I am.

"I think I was taking so much away from them. It's not worth it. There has to be a balance."

Angel, a father of three with one child still living at home, said he no longer could achieve that balance while coaching.

"I had to reprioritize what I wanted to do in terms of my family," he said. "I just think right now I've got to focus on family and what is best for them."

Angel's resignation comes a little more than eight weeks before the Illini are scheduled to open their indoor season. The Rantoul native met with his team Thursday to tell them of his decision.

"It's not like I didn't think about this a lot," Angel said. "I thought about it a lot. Coaching is a passion for me, and I love those kids to death.

"But in the end, when you have a family and you're thinking about what's important for you and your wife, you've got to make some tough decisions."

After a highly successful career in high school coaching during the 1990s, Angel entered the college ranks in 1999 as an assistant at Tennessee-Martin. He also coached at Wichita State and Iowa before being hired as UI head coach in June 2003.

During his first three seasons at the Illini helm, his teams produced four top-four finishes in Big Ten indoor and outdoor meets and never placed lower than fifth.

Since 2007, however, Angel's teams were unable to sustain that level of success, never finishing higher than sixth in any conference meet and three times placing ninth or 10th.

In six seasons at Illinois, Angel coached 15 All-Americans and 30 Big Ten individual and relay champions. In 2006, his 1,600-meter relay team finished second in the NCAA indoor meet. His athletes also set 13 school records.

Angel said he was undecided on which line of work he plans to pursue, but it likely will be in the corporate or education areas. He previously worked in sales and management for a pharmaceutical company, and also taught physical education in high school and college. A former Army Airborne Ranger, he said a teaching position in ROTC might be an option.

Angel said he'll forever be grateful for the opportunity he received when hired by UI athletic director Ron Guenther.

"To coach at my alma mater, how many people get to do that?" he said. "It's a special thing."

In wrestling:

Illini lose opener. No. 19 Illinois and No. 10 Missouri split 10 bouts, but a fall at heavyweight proved to be the difference in the Tigers' season-opening 18-16 victory Thursday night at Columbia, Mo.

Mark Ellis, the nation's top-ranked heavyweight, pinned Pat Walker in 3 minutes, 54 seconds to give Missouri a 12-3 lead. The Illini rallied to take a 16-15 lead in the second-to-last bout when Clint Arlis edged Patrick Wright 3-2 at 157 pounds.

But seventh-ranked Nicholas Marable outbattled Conrad Polz 3-2 at 165 to boost Missouri to its seventh straight season-opening victory.

Other Illini winners included John Dennen at 125; No. 13 Ryan Prater at 141; Eric Terrazas at 149; and No. 7 Jordan Blanton at 174. No. 10 John Dergo of Illinois lost to No. 2 Maxwell Askren 9-4 at 184 pounds.