Despite battling heavy rain throughout the entire first day of the Big Ten Championships, the Illinois women's track and field team finished the day with a third place finish in the 10,000m. Senior Courtney Yaeger placed third in the event, notching six team points for the Illini on day one. Senior Marissa Golliday finished day one of the heptathlon leading the group of 12 after racking up 3,443 points through four events. Senior Kristin Morrison finished sixth after day one.
"We had a lot of great things that happened today, especially Courtney Yaeger in the 10,000m," head coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said. "It was really exciting to see her last Big Ten race with that kind of finish. It was a personal best, school record and a facility record. For that kind of performance to bring the first points in the books for our team was outstanding. The heptathlon girls performed really well today as well. They set personal bests in almost everything they did. The weather was awful today so for those girls to do so well in the rain was fantastic. It was a good thing they delayed the pole vault until tomorrow because of the conditions. Today turned out to be a really good day for us on day one."
Under the lights, Yaeger finished third in the 10,000m and reached the podium for the first time in her career. The senior crossed the finish line in a time of 34:17.37 which sets a new school record, goes under the facility record and a lifetime best. Junior Meghan Frigo finished the race with a time of 37:00.23.
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