Mike Turk’s defending Big Ten outdoor champions will send nearly 40 Illini athletes into Saturday’s Twilight meet at the Illinois Track Stadium.
But the 4:30 p.m. start of running events won’t serve as a home tuneup for another conference title run. The Illini men’s track and field team is too young and missing too many key scorers.
Turk is building for the future in multiple ways.
(1) In producing another strong 400-meter sprint relay unit, he is building it around three freshmen and two sophomores.
Said Turk: “Our best two sprinters are Mo Maat and Devin Quinn, and they haven’t run on the same unit yet.