By Michael Belmont
Gargoyle sports editor
Posted Wednesday, May 2, 2007, The OG, boys track & sports

ST. JOSEPH — The boys track team cashed in on strong performances from its 400- and 800-meter runners to place seventh out of 17 teams at the St. Joseph-Ogden Spartan Classic Friday night.

The 4x800 relay of sophomore Isaac Chambers, junior Jacob Olshansky, junior Austin Rundus, and sophomore Malcolm Taylor continued its dominance with a first-place finish in a season-best 8 minutes, 25.72 seconds.

The squad placed first the previous week at the Unity Invite with a time of 8:39.08.

Second-place Monticello finished nearly 5 seconds behind the Illineks with a time of 8:30.66. The Sages had beaten the Illineks at the Illinois Prep Top Times meet on March 30.

Last year, the 4x800 squad of then-seniors Cameron Cropek and Kangway Chuang, Taylor, and Rundus ran an 8:23.3 at the Spartan Classic to place second behind Monticello.

This year's squad is just 3.48 seconds away from the Class A automatic state qualifying time of 8:22.24.

To qualify for state, athletes must either place in the top two of their events at IHSA sectionals or meet the automatic qualifying standards, also at sectionals.

This year Uni will compete in the 16-team Tuscola sectional on May 18. Last year, Uni's 4x800 won its sectional and went on to place 10th at state. The 4x800 was Uni's only boys state qualifer in 2006.

Also on Friday, the 4x400 relay of Chambers, Rundus, Taylor, and senior Nick Pratt finished third and broke the Uni record for the event with a time of 3:34.49.

“This is exciting news,” Chambers said shortly after the meet. “Pratt ran around a 51 for his split of this race, and Malcolm ran a 54. Malcolm already ran almost 3 seconds faster [than a 54] Tuesday [at Uni's dual meet against Unity High in Tolono] and 2 seconds faster in the open 400 today, so we should be able to cut at least a few seconds off our time in the 4x4. I PRed, and I'm pretty sure Rundus did too.”

The Uni squad finished less than half a second behind second-place St. Joseph-Ogden. The Spartans ran the distance in 3:34.06.

If Chambers is right about the 4x400 team cutting off a few more seconds from its time, then the Illineks will have an excellent chance of making it to state in this event as well as in the 4x800. The automatic state qualifying time for the 4x400 is 3:31.74.

Meanwhile, Pratt's performance in his portion of the race would have been good for a first- or second-place finish in the open 400 category. In fact, it would have met the state qualifying standard of 51.94.

As it was, the senior came in fourth in that event with a time of 52.72. He was right behind Taylor, who finished in 52.55 and placed third. Both Pratt and Taylor have a solid chance of qualifying for state automatically in the 400 if they can continue to shave off a few more fractions of a second.

Chambers placed third in the freshman/sophomore 400 with a time of 55 seconds even.

Overall, Uni finished with 32 points, one point behind sixth-place St. Thomas More and five points ahead of eighth-place Unity. Tuscola won the meet with 160 points, and host SJO came in second with 114 and a third points.

The boys are scheduled to compete again May 10, when they will travel to the Gibson City Invitational.

2007 BOYS VARSITY TRACK & FIELD RESULTS (OUTDOOR)

March 29: Gibson City Meet (at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 5th (out of 5 teams), 17 pts

• STORY: Relay teams run season bests at Indoor Classic (Outdoor results included in story)

• EVENT RESULTS (top 3 finishes):

— 110 hurdles: Nick Zukoski (fr), 3rd, 21.1

— 300 hurdles: Zukoski, 3rd, 57.8

— shot put: Frankie McFarland (jr), 3rd, 41-11.5

April 10: Gibson City Tri-Meet (at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 3rd (out of 3 teams)

• STORY: Uni athletes win 11 events against GCMS, PBL

• EVENT RESULTS (top 3 finishes):

— 400: Nick Pratt (sr), 1st, 54.06; Isaac Chambers (so), 3rd, 56.84

— 800: Malcolm Taylor (so), 1st, 2:10.1

— 3,200: Nathan Smith (fr), 3rd, 11:56.1

— 110 hurdles: Nick Zukoski (fr), 2nd, 21.4

— 4x200 relay: Carter Hutchens (so), Noel Knox (so), Cheng Luo (so), Kareem Sayegh (so), 1st, 1:46.0

— 4x400 relay: Pratt, Taylor, Jacob Olshansky (jr), Chambers, 1st, 3:53.2

— 4x800 relay: Taylor, Austin Rundus (jr), Chambers, Olshansky, 1st, 8:54.2

— long jump: Pratt, 3rd, 17-10

— shot put: Frankie McFarland (jr), 2nd, 41-3

April 20: Unity Boys Invitational (at Unity H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 9th (out of 13 teams)

• STORY: 4x800 team wins at Unity Invite, on pace for state

• EVENT RESULTS (top 10 finishes):

— 400: Nick Pratt (sr), 5th, 54.51; Isaac Chambers (so), 10th, 56.31

— 1,600: Jacob Olshansky (jr), 10th, 5:10.09; Sam Imlay (jr), 10th place, 5:10.09

— 3,200: Jack Snyder (fr), 10th, 11:46.42

— 110 hurdles: Nick Zukoski (fr), 8th, 21.19

— 300 hurdles: Carter Hutchens (so), 10th, 49.79

— 4x400 relay: Chambers, Rundus, Olshansky, Pratt, 4th, 3:42.34

— 4x800 relay: Chambers, Olshansky, Austin Rundus (jr), Malcolm Taylor (so), 1st, 8:39.08

— high jump: Pratt, 9th, 5-2

— long jump: Pratt, 4th, 18-3

— triple jump: Kareem Sayegh (so), 9th, 34-0

— shot put: Frankie McFarland (jr), 8th, 40-7

April 24: Unity Dual Meet (at Unity H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 2nd (out of 2 teams)

• STORY: none. In several of the events, Uni faced no competition; in others the competitors were overwhelmingly from Unity High. The meet gave both teams a chance to experiment with different lineups.

April 27: St. Joseph-Ogden Spartan Classic (at SJO H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 7th (out of 17 teams)

• STORY: see above

• EVENT RESULTS (top 5 finishes):

— 400: Malcolm Taylor (so), 3rd, 52.55; Nick Pratt (sr), 4th, 52.72

— fresh/soph 400: Isaac Chambers (so), 3rd 55.00

— 4x400 relay: Chambers, Austin Rundus (jr), Taylor, Pratt (sr), 3rd, 3:34.49 (school record)

— 4x800 relay: Chambers, Jacob Olshansky (jr), Rundus, Taylor, 1st, 8:25.72

Remaining meets: see schedule