Feb. 14, 2011
COMPLETE RESULTS
NAPERVILLE, Ill. - The UIC men's track and field team continued a strong 2011 indoor season with a second-place finish at Saturday's Chicagoland Championships, hosted by North Central College.
For the most part, it was a two-team race throughout the afternoon, but in the end the host school, North Central edged the Flames for the top. North Central scored 182.50 points, while UIC was the only other team to eclipse the century mark with 105 points. Carthage placed third with 63 points.
Senior Andy Wall had two first-place finishes by winning the 60-meter hurdles in a career-best time of 8.43 seconds and the triple jump with a distance of 14.38 meters. Wall also placed second in the high jump with a season-best height of 2.00 meters. Teammate, sophomore Justin Higginbotham, finished third in the triple jump with a distance of 13.95 meters and fifth in Saturday's high jump with an effort of 1.85 meters.
Freshman Matt Kubik also continued to perform like anything but a newcomer as he won Saturday's 60-meter dash with a season-best time of 6.97 seconds and finished second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.46 seconds to earn eight team points for the Flames.
Another freshman, Angelos Karkalis, was the runner-up in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:57.58, while Lewis Brown ran fifth in that event in 1:59.63.
Karkalis teamed up with his twin brother, Photis Karkalis, fellow newcomer Ryan Blackmon and junior John Glass to win Saturday's distance medley relay. The Flames posted a time of 10:19.37 to capture the full 10 points.
"I'm continually impressed with the group of freshmen that we have this year," said UIC head coach Jim Knoedel. "This is the strongest class we've had in my 15 years here."
UIC will be back in action late Friday afternoon when they travel to Milwaukee to participate in the UWM Quad at 4 p.m. That meet will serve as the final preparation for the Horizon League Championships which will take place Feb. 26-27 in Geneva, Ohio.
