ST. LOUIS – With the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships just three days away, the league office released the pre-championship poll where the Illinois State women were picked to finish first and the men were picked to finish second.
Both Redbird squads won the MVC indoor titles the last two years, marking the first time in program history that ISU has recorded back-to-back sweeps of the team titles. Should both Illinois State teams take home Valley indoor titles this weekend, it will be the first time in MVC history that a program has swept the team titles three years in a row.
A victory at the MVC Championships would give each team its 12th indoor conference title overall. The women currently lead the Missouri Valley with 11 indoor team titles, while the men, who also have 11 indoor team titles, are third behind Southern Illinois and UNI.
The Redbird women's team received all 10 first-place points for 100 points, followed by Southern Illinois in second with 85 points and Indiana State in third with 80 points. On the men's side, UNI was picked to place first with seven first-place votes (77 points) and the Redbirds were selected to finish second with 75 points. Rounding out the top-three on the men's side is Indiana State with 62 points.
The trio of Ariana Cranston (pole vault), Hattie Plumb (800m) and Kristin Higgins (high jump) all return for Illinois State and look to defend their titles in their respective events. The Redbird women return nine student-athletes who earned a total of 10 All-MVC honors at last year's MVC Indoor Championships. ISU had one women's relay team (4x400) earn all-conference honors last year.
The ISU men return three MVC indoor individual champions and an MVC champion DMR team that has all four members returning from a year ago. Jordan Wilkerson (heptathlon), Jack Anstey (mile) and Kimathi Johnson (800m) will all look to reclaim their titles from the 2019 Valley Indoor Championships.
The 'Birds have seven returning student-athletes who earned All-MVC honors at last year's indoor championship meet. Additionally, ISU returns all four members of the distance medley relay and three of the four members on the 4x400-meter relay from a year ago.
Fans can watch both days of the MVC Indoor Track & Field Championships on ESPN3 ($), follow live results at here or get live updates on Twitter by following @redbird_trackxc.
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