NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State track & field teams will go for their third-straight sweep of the Missouri Valley Conference indoor titles this weekend when they compete at the MVC Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday, Feb. 29 and Sunday, March 1 at the University of Northern Iowa. Friday's events are slated to begin at 9:30 a.m. inside the UNI Dome.
AT THE TOP
The Redbirds have a combined 10 student-athletes across the men's and women's teams that currently have the best time/mark in the Valley. Southern Illinois and Loyola follow Illinois State closely with a combined eight student-athletes each who own one of the league's top spots.
ISU's distance and middle-distance group account for five of the Redbirds' 10 top-ranked times with the fastest times in the women's 800m, the men's and women's mile, the women's 3,000m and the men's 5,000m.
Senior Hattie Plumb will look to win her third-straight MVC 800m title after winning the event at both the indoor and outdoor MVC Championships as a junior. Earlier this season she ran an indoor personal-best time of 2:08.58, which is not only the Valley's fastest 800 time, but is second-fastest time in Illinois State indoor track & field history.
In the mile, senior Jack Anstey and sophomore Rachel Hickey have the top times after both recently ran their fastest times of the season. Anstey recorded the second sub-four-minute mile of his career at the Last Chance College Elite Meet last weekend, finishing second overall with a time of 3:59.93. He is the only student-athlete in the Valley to run a sub-four mile time. Hickey, who competed at the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame, ran a lifetime best time of 4:50.64 to finish fourth overall. Her time is the No. 9 time all-time in ISU history.
After finishing second in the 5K and third in the 3K at last year's MVC Indoor Championships, senior Grace Beattie is hungry for the gold as she competes in her final indoor conference meet. Beattie, who will triple in the mile, 3,000m and 5,000m this year, currently has the top 3K time by nearly three seconds, running a time of 9:43.46 at the Meyo Invitational earlier this season.
Her mile time of 4:52.32, is the second-fastest, only behind her teammate, Hickey. Should Beattie win all three events this weekend, she will become only the sixth female student-athlete to do so, joining former Redbirds, Wendy VanMierlo (1984) and Sue Daggett (1997).
In the men's 5,000m, junior Kevin Koski has led the event all season. With a personal-best time of 14:16.95, Koski leads the field by nearly 10 seconds and ranks No. 7 all-time in Illinois State track & field history.
The other events where the Redbirds own the top spot are all field/multi events, including the women's high jump, men's and women's pole vault, men's heptathlon and women's pentathlon.
Junior Kameesha Smith will look for her second-straight MVC high jump title after winning the event at the outdoor championships last year. Smith, who placed second to teammate Kristin Higgins at the indoor conference meet a year ago, has the best clearance by two inches. Her clearance of 1.78 meters (5-10 ft.) is tied for No. 4 in Illinois State track & field history and tied for No. 23 in the nation. In order to qualify the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships Smith will need to move up to the top-16 in the nation.
In the pole vault, the 'Birds have consistently been at the top of the Valley. Sophomore transfer Eddie Winner has led the men's pole vault all season and is one of two student-athletes to clear at least five meters this season. Winner's best clearance of the season is 5.15 meters (16-10.75 ft.) and is the fourth-best all-time on the ISU indoor top-10 list.
On the women's side, senior Ariana Cranston moved back into the No. 1 spot over the weekend, clearing an indoor personal-best of 4.02 meters (13-02.25 ft.). With that mark, Cranston is the only student-athlete in the Valley to clear at least four meters this season and moved up from No. 3 to No. 2 in Illinois State track & field history.
Sophomore Caleb Miedema and senior Jordyn Bruce lead the Valley in the heptathlon and pentathlon. Miedema is the only student-athlete with more than 5,000 points in the heptathlon and ranks No. 4 on the ISU indoor track & field top-10 list, while Bruce's 3,660 points also rank her fourth in the pentathlon in the ISU record books.
RETURNING VALLEY CHAMPS
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 Championship. 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, including the three pole vaulters who swept the event a year ago. The DMR and the 4x400-meter relay both earned All-Valley honors at the 2019 indoor championship meet.
VALLEY HISTORY
The Redbirds' sweep of the Valley team titles last year marked the first time in program history that Illinois State recorded a back-to-back sweep. The 'Birds will look to continue making history this weekend as they go for their third-straight team title sweep at the MVC Indoor Championships.
If both Illinois State teams take home Valley indoor titles, it will mark 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.
Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Jeff Bovee has led the women's and men's track & field programs to a combined five indoor conference titles and two outdoor conference titles since taking over at the start of the 2014-15 season. Bovee also has led the cross country program to two team titles. 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.
HOW TO FOLLOW
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.
MVC ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Dec. 10 – Jack Anstey, Track
Dec. 10 – Tori Ortiz, Track
Jan. 21 – Kristin Higgins, Field
Jan. 28 – Kameesha Smith, Field
Jan. 28 – Caleb Miedema, Field
Feb. 4 – Grace Beattie, Track
Feb. 11 – Eddie Winner, Field
Feb. 18 – Kameesha Smith, Field
Feb. 25 – Jack Anstey, Track
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