Illinois track and field’s rise continues – The News-Gazette

CHAMPAIGN — Half of Demirjian Park was a whirlwind of activity Thursday morning with Illinois soccer hosting a kids camp on its side of the complex.

The other half was quiet.

Thursday was an off day for the Illinois men’s and women’s track and field teams. A short break before training resumed in town ahead of a Sunday flight to Eugene, Ore., for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Quiet, but not empty.

A group of 17 Illinois track and field athletes entered the building and made their way down to the track for a round of photos spotlighting the most combined individual event NCAA qualifiers in program history. All 17 decked out in matching all-white, lightweight sweatsuits for the occasion.

Petros Kyprianou was in his office. The Illinois track and field director pulled into the parking lot at Demirjian Park just before noon Thursday, his Audi displaying custom plates broadcasting his Illini allegiance.

Both of Kyprianou’s teams might be outdoor nationals bound, but he had one last meeting with a visiting recruit to continue to build next year’s roster. The combination — those 17 athletes headed to Eugene and the recruiting success with four high-level transfers signed this week — illustrates why Kyprianou has started thinking Illinois could be his dream job.

Finding a spark again

Burnt out despite his success at Georgia, Kyprianou rediscovered his joy for collegiate track and field at Illinois. A place where he’s reinvented the program since taking the job in July 2022 after a year away from the sport. Now, he’s got a women’s team that’s a national championship contender next week at historic Hayward Field after a third-place finish indoors in March and a men’s team that has a realistic top 10 finish as a goal.

Kyprianou has a sense of gratitude and fulfillment for the way the program has grown in the last four years.

“This thing was a premeditated, prearranged deal we dreamt of and felt we could do it even though a lot of people, including those close to us, couldn’t believe Illinois could truly be a national championship-contending team,” Kyprianou said. “There are certain stages to get to hoist the big one. There’s the talent ID and then the talent acquisition and then the development and retention. … We’re rising.”

The talent Kyprianou and the Illinois staff identified and acquired was specific. A process that came with an emphasis in three areas — jumps, throws and combined events. That’s mirrored in the 17 athletes that qualified for nationals.

The Illini women will be represented by three hammer throwers, three long jumpers, two heptathletes, one high jumper and a pole vaulter. A group that’s already proven their mettle on the sport’s biggest stage, with long jumper Sophia Beckmon claiming a national championship indoors in March and Rose Yeboah winning the 2024 outdoor high jump title.

Plan comes to fruition

Kyprianou has also turned Illinois into a destination for multi-event athletes. JaiCieonna Gero-Holt and Meagan Humphries will represent the Illini women in the heptathlon in Eugene, while Luuk Pelkmans, Jip de Greef and Andreas Hantson all qualified for nationals in the men’s decathlon.

“(Kyprianou) has a history of developing a lot of Olympic-level athletes — especially in the decathlon and the jumping events,” de Greef said. “The group is insane right now. It’s probably the best training group anywhere in the world right now.”

First de Greef and then Humphries used the common phrase “iron sharpens iron” to describe the training environment at Demirjian Park. A typical sports cliché? Sure, but it also has the benefit of being true in Champaign.

“We all want each other to perform their own best, but then we want our best to be better than our teammates’ best,” said Humphries, who joined the Illini this season after spending her freshman year at Texas. “It’s a great environment where we’re pushing each other, but also being so supportive. Nothing is taken personal. We’re all here to support each other and watch each other succeed.”

Kyprianou has deliberately cultivated that team identity despite it running counter to the sport’s individual nature. The Illini might be competing for team titles next week at the NCAA championship, but track and field is a team sport in the same way golf and tennis are team sports at the collegiate level.

Kyprianou doesn’t mind individualism. In fact, he helps mold it, but the athletes he’s brought together have still developed a team as part of the foundation of their individual successes.

“The beauty of track and field is it’s not a team sport,” Kyprianou said. “In a good way, you can be the most selfish, self-centered diva in your event when the lights are on, and then by doing that and you perform, you actually help your team without doing anything.

“What we’ve created here is they created this bond. They’re all very close. The personalities we’ve managed to bring together between athletes, coaches and staff, they’re all in harmony.”

Gaining attention

The way the program is set up — and the success it’s generated in the past few years — has started to draw the attention of more high-level athletes. That includes the four women that signed this week.

Texas A&M transfer Sofia Yakushina, a three-time All-American and 2025 SEC heptathlon champion, is the most decorated. Georgia transfer Skylynn Townsend, a two-time All-American and 2026 SEC indoor triple jump champion, isn’t far behind. Plus there’s reigning Big West heptathlon champ Joy Anderson out of UC Irvine and Georgia sprinter Keelan Wright.

“We’re being watched a lot more than we think we are,” Gero-Holt said. “As we talk to each of the recruits that are now committed, they were watching us. They were watching our dynamic. They were watching how we communicate with our coach, how we communicate with each other. They were watching how we cheer each other on in the stands, how we show up to our teammates’ events. Just seeing the true community we have.

“I’m not going to sit here and be like, ‘Oh, we’re all bestie-westies and we’re all super close and all that,’ but we are, truly, a definition of a family. That speaks for itself. We’re all brothers and sisters and truly here to lift in development. We’re all here because we want to be the best athletes, but also the best people we can be. Outsiders are starting to see that. They’re starting to recognize that, and they want that.”

Katharina Graman was one of those people. The Stockholm native transferred to Illinois this year after spending the 2025 indoor and outdoor seasons at San Jose State. She qualified for outdoor nationals in the triple jump last year for the Spartans and is now Illinois’ only double event qualifier in the triple jump and long jump.

Graman said her priority in the transfer portal was landing at a strong program with a good coach. Illinois certainly qualified with Kyprianou, the success of long jumpers like Beckmon and Elizabeth Ndudi and the fact the Illini women have reached the No. 1 ranking in the country on multiple occasions in recent years.

“I felt like I was in safe hands,” Graman said. “It’s a perfect balance of having fun, but also holding each other accountable and competitiveness and supporting each other through practices. I don’t ever feel like I have to compete with anybody, but it’s a great resource to push myself. We have different stride patterns. We have different ways of jumping. Some people have a better way of moving over the board. I try to learn from them and from coach.

“To be part of something historic and be part of something that’s never been here is very inspiring and fun, and it also pushes me to really elevate myself. I really want to help this team, and I want to contribute.”

Illinois’ success in multiple disciplines — for both the men’s and women’s teams — has elevated the level of competitiveness of the program as a whole. It’s contagious. No matter where you look during training, there’s a high-level athlete capable of competing with the best college track and field has to offer.

Getting them to buy in

It’s what Kyprianou envisioned when he took the Illinois job. Building up the program, erasing the stigma of Illinois being unable to compete at the top of the sport, was his goal. Even without the same kind of support other top programs have from a financial standpoint.

It was a goal fueled by injecting belief in what could be in Champaign into each and every athlete. An idea that’s taken root during the course of the last four years.

The Illini believe — in Kyprianou and themselves.

“I feel everybody that isn’t on our team fears him because they know what he’s about,” Illinois pole vaulter Cody Johnston said. “What he’s about, that’s what we’re about. You can’t ask for better energy. I feel like you are who you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with winners, you’re bound to win.

“Success just runs through the blood here. It starts with our coaching staff, of course. I think we, personally, have the No. 1 coaching staff in the country. We took a non-track school, and we’re pretty much at the top already within the first (four) years of our coaches being here.”