Illinois Women, Under Coach Petros Kyprianou, Climb From 11th At Indoor Conference Meet To First With Balanced Effort

By David Woods for DyeStat

Photo courtesy University of Illinois

Nineteen months after arrival in Champaign, the Petros Effect has taken hold in Big Ten track and field.

Illinois, a moribund program, has transformed under coach Petros Kyprianou into an eclectic collection of foreigners and Americans, newbies and holdovers, jumpers and sprinters.  The Fighting Illini surged at the end to win the conference indoor championship Saturday at Geneva, Ohio.

“We stayed consistent,” Kyprianou said. “I think that’s really what got us.”

Illinois finished with 104 points to 87 for runner-up Penn State. Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan scored 73, 72 and 71, respectively.

Illini champions included Czech high jumper Bara Sajdokova, 6-2.25 (1.89m), Latvian triple jumper Darja Sopova, 43-11.25 (13.39m), and homegrown sprinter Jessica McDowell, 23.32 seconds in the 200 meters.

After falling behind Penn State 81-71, McDowell led a 1-2-4 finish for Illinois’ 23 points in the 200.

“Jessica McDowell showed why she is the captain of our women’s team,” Kyprianou said.

McDowell said she was motivated after finishing third in the 400 (PB 51.81) behind Michigan’s Savannah Sutherland (51.67) and Indiana’s Kenisha Phillips (51.72).

“I would say the mentality was that we knew we had to go out there and get as many points as possible,” said McDowell, a fifth-year senior from Normal, Ill.

Sajdokova and Nebraska’s Jenna Rogers tied the meet record set by Michigan’s Nicole Forrester in 1999.

Sajdokova, a junior transfer from Texas A&M, had her highest jump since 2020. Since then, she said, he has coped with ankle surgery and two split discs.

“When I transferred to coach Petros, everything just started to click and to make sense,” she said. “He knows how to work with me.”

Penn State’s title bid featured a gritty double by Australian sophomore Hayley Kitching, who nearly set a meet record in the 600 meters with a time of 1:26.97 after taking the 800 in 2:04.08.

Elsewhere, Rutgers’ Chloe Timberg won the pole vault at 14-11 (4.53m), second in Division 1 this year.

Celine Brown, also of Rutgers, beat a quartet of Illini with a long jump of 20-10.75 (6.37m). Illinois still scored 17 points on a 2-4-6-8 finish. Prize freshman Sophia Beckmon, ranked ninth in the NCAA, finished eighth in the long jump.

Illinois had 56 points in four jumps, 43 in four sprints and scored in 10 of 18 events. Victory was secured by surprise fifth by Halle Hill in the 3,000 meters. In the offseason, the Illini lost NCAA mile champion Olivia Howell, who transferred to Texas.

“Overall, it was a very balanced team, in my opinion,” Kyprianou said. “They showed we have strength pretty much everywhere.”

Since last winning the Big Ten in 2013, the Illini had finished ninth, 10th, 13th, 12th, 12th, 11th, 11th, 11th, 10th and 11th indoors.

“I think this team is going places,” Kyprianou said. “And the men should get better, too.”

Washington prep JaiCieonna Gero-Holt, a junior whose Friday pentathlon score of 4,104 points would have won the Big Ten, expects to graduate early and join the team for 2025.

Paradoxically, this was the first conference title of any kind for Kyprianou, a 45-year-old Cypriot who built an NCAA power at Georgia in six seasons there from 2016-21.

This meet will change dramatically in 2025, when four of the sport’s powers – USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington – join the Big Ten from the Pac-12.

Wisconsin distance men pile on

Wisconsin scored 76 points in five distance races and edged Nebraska 122-118 for the men’s championship.

The repeat title was the Badgers’ 26th, tying Michigan for the most in Big Ten history.

Penn State finished third with 88 points. Defending champion Iowa was sixth with 58.

Wisconsin’s Jackson Sharp and Bob Liking accounted for 36 points, running 1-2 at both 5,000 and 3,000 meters.

Sharp, a 23-year-old Australian, repeated at both distances. He set a meet record of 7:46.42 in the 3,000, breaking the mark of 7:50.97 set by Wisconsin’s Maverick Darling in 2013.

Another Australian, Adam Spencer, repeated in the mile by closing the last 300 meters in 39.54 for a time of 4:05.90. He was coming off a 3:52.70 mile Feb. 11 at the 116th Millrose Games. Spencer nipped Michigan’s Nick Foster by .01 in Friday’s distance medley relay.

The Badgers also had a winner in Giovanni Wearing, 7.69 in the 60 hurdles.

Penn State’s Handel Roban won the 600 in 1:15.23, climbing to No. 11 on the all-time collegiate list. Cheickna Traore, a NCAA Division 3 champion who transferred from Ramapo College (N.J.), won a 60/200 double in 6.54 and 20.44 for the Nittany Lions.

Kyprianou, a combined events coach, had his influence further manifested in the heptathlon by Aiden Ouimet’s meet record of 6,120 points. The score is best by an American this year, No. 2 in the NCAA and 15th on all-time collegiate list. Ouimet, an Illini senior from Chicago, broke the mark of 6,090 set by Wisconsin’s Japheth Cato in 2013.

Nebraska’s Till Steinforth, a German multi-eventer, concentrated on the long jump and won with a distance of 26-2.75 (7.99m).

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007