We'll start with his PR's in high school.
He's simply the finest athlete to compete and graduate from Carlinville High School. His accomplishments in high school are simply incredible. So where do we begin???
We'll start with his PR's in high school.
He only ran the open 400 twice in his career. Once as a junior (51.2) and again as a senior. He ran on a 4x400 Relay a couple of times as well. Look for those 200 and 400 times to come down in a hurry as a Fighting Illini.
Tunde was in Edwardsville this past weekend (6/21-22) competing in the U.S. Junior Nationals. He competed in both the 100 and the long jump. Of course, he fared better in the long jump, but did have the 10th fastest time in the 100 prelims (10.72). He finished 3rd in his heat. He did successfully defend his title as the fastest junior(19 and under) in the state of Illinois. He did that by beating two-time defending Class AA champ Anthony Moorman in his prelim heat. Moorman ran a 10.74.
Commpeting in a very good long jump field, Tunde finished 4th, while leaping 25'3.25" (7.70m). Below are the final results for the top 6.
PL Mark Athlete Hometown
Interesting to note that Tunde will problem see a lot more of Lenton Herring. He is heading to the University of Wisconsin this fall. Herring is a 51-52 foot triple jumper (he won the Junior National title) from Gainesville, Florida. (I'm personally quite upset that the Gators couldn't recruit this kid and keep him away from the Big Ten.)
Tunde was in second place going into the final (6th) jump, but Howard and Rogers both improved to finish 1-2. Tunde's six jumps in order were: 7.38, 7.51, 7.70, 7.61, 5.82, 6.85.
Tunde finished 14th on June 5 in the long jump at the NCAA Championships. He lept 23-11.75. B.Yamini the Big Ten champ from Iowa fouled on all three prelim jumps and didn't place. The same was true for Springfield Southeast grad J.Ballard competing for Arkansas.
Full results can be found at the NCAA Championship page.
Tunde barely missed qualifying to compete in the 100m dash this weekend. If his 10.33 had been one hundredth of a second faster, he would be competing.
I'm not sure about Tunde's summer track schedule, but you can count on being able to follow his track accomplishments here. I think he is planning on competing at the Junior Nationals again this year.
At the outdoor Big Ten Championships this past weekend (5/23-25) Tunde had a fantastic meet. He finished second in the long jump by leeping 25-8.75 on his sixth and final attempt to pass J.Gorham of Penn State. The mark provisionally qualifies him for the NCAA meet in Bloomington, Indiana next week. Currently, Tunde is ranked 14th (tie) in the nation. He needs to stay in the top 16 in order to compete at the National Championships.
Tunde also ran a new PR of 10.33 in the 100m dash prelims. This also provisionally qualified him for the NCAAs, but he is currently ranked 33rd. Tunde ended up finishing 5th in the 100 on Sunday.
Tunde led off the 4x100 m relay for the Illini that won a Big Ten Championship in 40.05. Tunde handed off to Chris Jones. The third and fourth legs were run by the two seniors, Charles Gibson and Dorian Green.
Tunde won the long jump Saturday, May 17 in Champaign and established a new outdoor PR of 25-6.25! He also ran the 200 in 21.77. The long jump mark provisionally qualifies him for the NCAA Championships in Bloomington, Indiana. Unfortunately, the mark puts him somewhere around 17-18th on the national list of qualifiers (see NCAA page). He needs to improve at least an inch to be among the top 16 and qualify for the NCAA meet. Tunde's jump did make the trackwire website (see below).
Of course, the next big meet is this weekend in Champaign. Tunde will probably compete in many events at the Big Ten Championships. He will certainly be in the long jump and Illinois' top seeded 4x100 relay. He may also be in the 100 and/or 200.
Tunde and the Illini were home in Champaign this past weekend (4/19). It was Tunde's best outdoor meet of the year, and probably his best meet ever. Tunde won the 100 m dash in 10.63, a time that moved him up to 3rd in the Big Ten rankings. Tunde also won the long jump in 24-6.25. He was third in the 200 in an all time PR of 21.34. That moved him to 3rd on the Big Ten list in that event as well. Tunde also ran on Illinois' 4x100 Relay which finished first in 40.87.
Tunde and the Illini traveled west to the Golden Bear Invite at the University of California this past weekend (4/12). Track powerhouse Texas was there as well as USC and several other California schools. Texas features three excellent long jumpers. Tunde won th long jump, leaping 24-6.5. He also ran a good time in the 100 and probably was on Illinois' 4x100 Relay that won in a good time of 40.36.
LONG JUMP
100 M DASH
4x100 RELAY
They didn't run prelims and finals in the 100, so Tunde was in the slow heat, which he won. All the other top 8 times were in another heat.
Check out the top 10 Big 10 marks in some of the events Tunde could be competing in at the Big 10 Championships.
Tunde competed in the long jump for the first time outdoors this past weekend (3/22). He went 25-0, his second best jump ever. It was good enough to place him third at the Willie Williams Invite in Arizona. A non-collegiate won the event, with Joe Laster from Nebraska finishing second. Laster was the top-ranked long jumper going into the NCAA indoor meet, but finished behind Tunde in Indianapolis. (see below)
Tunde was tied for 8th after the first three jumps, and made the finals in Indianapolis. On the basis of second-best jump he finished 9th. Tunde earned All-American honors by finishing among the top 8 U.S. citizens. (Niels Kruller is not from the United States.)
Here are the final standings. Former Springfield Southeast star James Ballard was 6th in the long jump for Arkansas.
I've compiled an "unofficial" list ranking where Tunde's marks put him compared to the rest of the Big Ten athletes so far this season.
Speaking of the Illini, there are a couple of web sites that Tunde may be showing up on in the near future.
University of Illinois Athletics - They've got a schedule, roster, and should have selected results.
Big Ten Conference - Pretty good site for Big Ten basketball. So far, they're doing a pretty poor job with track & field coverage, but we'll keep hoping.
NCAA- The official page for all NCAA activities. It's got more than you want to know, and sometimes not what you're really after. They do have lists of qualifying marks and schedule of events for the National Championships
Trackwire - The best web site for coverage of the top NCAA track and field athletes.
Tunde was all over the central Illinois papers this past year. Here are some of the articles.
As mentioned before, Ridley's memorable name will be in track records all over central Illinois for many years to come. Check out the list of records he set throughout his career. This way you can ask and answer tough trivia questions at the 1998 County Meet while you're waiting for the next race to start. Did Tunde set more records in the 100 or the Long Jump? Was he any good as a freshman/sophomore? What about indoors? Here are the answers.
Visit
the CHS Boys T&F page for even more about Tunde. More articles
can be found here.
Last Updated: June 23, 1997
Site Maintained by: Derek Jokisch