By Justin Park
Gargoyle senior editor
Posted Saturday, April 22, 2006, The OG, sports

Uni's 3,200-meter relay team of senior Josie Chambers and sophomores Shivani Khanna, Ruthie Welch, and Samantha Nguyen placed second in Friday's Lady Falcon Invitational at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley.

They improved significantly from the previous week's performance at the Unity Invitational (10:47.92), with a time of 10 minutes, 28.27 seconds. They were shy of first place by less than a second to Unity High School.

The 1,600 relay team of Chambers, junior Aria Callopy and sophomores Welch and Lizzy Warner ran a 4:24.37, claiming another second place, just 0.05 behind Lexington. The 4x400 team dropped almost six seconds from its performance at the Unity meet (4:30.24).

Uni's individual races were just as close as the relay teams'. Freshman Elaine Gu finished third in the 3,200 with a time of 12:31.11, only a three-tenths of a second behind the second-place finisher from Tri-Valley.

Sophomore Shivani Khanna finished with a 5:34.86 in the 800, giving her fourth place.

Fifteen schools competed in the invitational.

“The meet was full of PRs [personal records], and there was a lot of improvement,” Khanna said. “The relays dropped a lot of time, and I think it's been the best outdoor meet we've had all season. This meet gave us the confidence we need to go into the state series.”

The Illineks compete Friday in the Monticello Girls Invitational. The meet begins at 4:30 p.m.

Visit the team's home page for a complete schedule of 2006 meets.

The girls will return to GCMS on May 12 for a 17-team Class A sectional.