Posted Friday, May 19, 2006, The OG, sports

The 3,200-meter relay team of sophomore Ruthie Welch, freshman Laura Hazlett, sophomore Shivani Khanna, and senior Josie Chambers ran a personal-record time of 9 minutes, 56.38 seconds this morning to qualify for Saturday's Class A state title race at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

Thirty-eight teams competed in today's 4x800 preliminary heats. (Rockford Christian, one of the 39 qualifiers, scratched.) The 12 fastest teams advanced to Saturday's championship race. Uni's time ranked ninth.

The Illineks entered the prelims with the 15th-fastest sectional time (10:16.00). They cut almost 20 seconds (19.62) off that time, which had been their personal best.

Saturday's 4x800 finals are scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m.

Here are the 12 teams that qualified for Saturday's race, ranked according to their official IHSA times:

1. Eureka, 9:40.32 (heat 1), Hannah Ehrenhardt (sr), Bonni Martin (so), Olivia Klaus (so), Amanda Holman (sr)

2. Riverdale, 9:41.52 (heat 2), Angie Dierikx (sr), Maikenzie Stawicki (sr), Caitlin Bull (so), Kara Howell (fr)

3. Porta (co-op team), 9:43.22 (heat 1), Ashley Thomasma (jr), Kayla Brown (sr), Whitney Brauer (jr), Katie Drendel (so)

4. Sherrard, 9:45.44 (heat 1), Lindsie Pettie (jr), Kara Weihler (jr), Morgan Leffel (jr), Shelbie Pettie (fr)

5. Bureau Valley, 9:47.60 (heat 3), Angie Bickett (jr), Molly VonHolten (jr), Jessica Ries (sr), Alisa Baron (so)

6. Monmouth-Roseville, 9:48.13 (heat 3), Bethany Corbin (fr), Morgan Melvin (so), Chelsea Langford (fr), Hannah Hottle (jr)

7. Rochester, 9:49.80 (heat 2), Abby Shunk (sr), Ericha Nowakowski (jr), Kayla Worker (jr), Leann Murphy (jr)

8. Tremont, 9:54.90 (heat 2), Alyssa Imig (so), Katy Deppert (so), Trish Humphrey (sr), Mandy Wirtjes (so)

9. Uni High, 9:56.38 (heat 1), Ruthie Welch (so), Laura Hazlett (fr), Shivani Khanna (so), Josie Chambers (sr)

10. Cumberland, 9:57.95 (heat 1), Amanda Wolke (sr), Kati Pinal (sr), Sydney Stults (fr), Ciara Robinson (sr)

11. Timothy Christian, 9:58.31 (heat 2), Alexis Euwema (jr), Samantha Goedeke (fr), Elizabeth DeGroot (fr), Rachel DeGroot (sr)

12. Harvard, 9:58.59 (heat 3), Brianna Mueller (sr), 450 Kelsey Martin (so), Courtney Seyller (so), Shannon Seyller (sr)

— Gargoyle staff