Story byThe News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Record number of Illini competing at NCAA championship

Scott Richey, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.Sat, June 6, 2026 at 2:47 PM UTC·3 min read

Jun. 6—Illinois has never taken as many individual event qualifiers to the NCAA championships than the 10 women and seven men set

to compete next week at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Staff writer Scott Richey spotlights that record-setting group:

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Oluwatomilayo Akintunde Gr., Hardyston, N.J.

Akintunde has experienced more postseason success at Illinois than in four years at Hampton combined. The fifth-year Illini was 12th in the weight throw at indoor nationals.

Sophia Beckmon Jr., Oregon City, Ore.

Beckmon earned her first All-American honor in the long jump at last year's outdoor nationals and her first national championship in the event in March at indoor nationals.

Jacob Cookinham Jr., Dartmouth, Mass.

Cookinham qualified for outdoors nationals last season with Kansas and is back with the Illini after a sixth-place finish in the shot put at the Big Ten outdoor championships.

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Jip de Greef Jr., Amersfoort, Netherlands

de Greef followed up a strong indoors heptathlon season, where he earned All-American honors by becoming the first Illinois decathlete to top 8,000 points at the Illini Deca-Jam in April.

JaiCieonna Gero-Holt So., South Hill, Wash.

Gero-Holt redshirted last year and broke out this year. She was second in the pentathlon at Big Ten indoors, second at indoor nationals and won the Big Ten outdoors heptathlon.

Katharina Graman Jr., Stockholm

Graman is the lone double qualifier and will compete in both the long jump and triple jump. She finished 22nd in the triple jump at nationals last season for San Jose State.

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Andreas Hantson Jr., Viljandi, Estonia

Hantson spent the previous two seasons at Purdue, where he was the 2024 Big Ten runner up in the decathlon. He added a runner-up finish in the Big Ten heptathlon indoors in February.

Meagan Humphries So., Santa Clarita, Calif.

Humphries, a Texas transfer, followed up her success indoors with a Big Ten pentathlon championship with a third-place finish in the Big Ten heptathlon last month.

Jr., Hobart, Ind.Johnston has competed for the majority of the outdoors season with a broken pinky but still had the best mark at the NCAA West regional to make his third straight outdoor championship.

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Jonathan Kapitolnik Fr., Ganei Tikva, Israel

Kapitolnik debuted for the Illini this outdoor season and made an early splash as a freshman by clearing 7 feet, 3 inches to win the Big Ten high jump title in Lincoln, Neb.

Jordan Koskondy Jr., Salem, Ore.

Koskondy, a two-time indoors nationals qualifier, finished fourth in the Big Ten championships in the hammer throw and fifth at the NCAA West regional to earn her first outdoor nationals spot.

Gr., Sasolburg, Free State, South AfricaMakhethe is competing in her first NCAA outdoor championship after earning All-American honors the past two indoor seasons. She was the Big Ten hammer throw runner-up last month.

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Mia Morello Sr., Round Lake

Morello is set to compete in her third consecutive NCAA outdoor championship. The Grayslake Central graduate finished eighth last June to earn her first All-American honor.

Viktor Morozov Sr., Kohtla Jarve, Estonia

Morozov was able to pair his Big Ten outdoors triple jump title last year with an indoors conference title in the event in March before placing second outdoors last month.

Elizabeth Ndudi Jr., Nantes, France

Ndudi came up a half-inch inch shy of winning a Big Ten outdoors long jump title in May and will compete in her first outdoors nationals after earning indoors All-American honors in 2024.

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Luuk Pelkmans Fr., Breda, Netherlands

Pelkmans' best moment this season came at the Big Ten outdoor championship, where the Illini freshman won the decathlon with 8,004 points — 372 more than his closest competitor.

Rose Yeboah Gr., Kumasi, Ghana

Yeboah won a national championship in the high jump in 2024 and finished as the national runner-up in 2025. Yeboah, a 2024 Olympian, is also the Illinois record holder at 6-51/2.