Posted Tuesday, May 16, 2006, The OG, sports

Just three days after laying claim to a Class A sectional title, the girls 3,200-meter relay team placed second at the annual News-Gazette Honor Roll Meet held Monday at the University of Illinois Outdoor Track Stadium.

The meet is considered a good measuring stick because the best track and field athletes in the area compete against one another regardless of school enrollment.

The foursome of sophomore Ruthie Welch, freshman Laura Hazlett, sophomore Shivani Khanna, and senior Josie Chambers recorded a time of 10 minutes, 25.01 seconds to finish behind Class AA Mahomet-Seymour, a powerhouse in distance events. The Bulldogs clocked in at 9:47.10.

Although the Illineks were nine seconds slower than at Friday's sectional (understandable considering Monday's bad weather and the need to focus on the upcoming state championship meet), the girls still established themselves as the area's best Class A 4x800 team. They beat third-place Prairie Central, a Class AA school, by 18 seconds (10:43.32) and fourth-place Unity by 24 seconds (10:49.85).

The foursome will compete Friday morning in the Class A state meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Preliminaries in their event will begin at 9:25 a.m.

Thirty-nine teams have qualified for prelims. Coming out of sectionals, Uni is tied with Central A&M for 15th seed. The winners of the three preliminary heats plus the nine teams with the next best times will qualify for finals on Saturday.

In other girls action at Monday's meet, senior Leah Imlay placed fourth in the 3,200 with a time of 13:20.48.

On the boys side, Uni's 4x800 team of senior Cameron Cropek, sophomores Jacob Olshansky and Austin Rundus, and freshman Malcolm Taylor tuned up for Friday's sectional by turning in a time of 8:33.88. (Olshansky ran instead of senior Kangway Chuang, who was out sick.) That was good for third place behind Class AA Centennial (8:19.16) and first-place Monticello. The Class A Sages broke a 24-year-old meet record, running an en fuego 8:01.30.

The Illinek foursome will compete Friday at the 15-school Tolono (Unity) Class A sectional, where they should be the favorite. Their closest competitors will likely be Unity and St. Thomas More, both of whom the boys defeated on Monday. Unity placed fourth (8:36.83) and STM fifth (8:37.79).

— Gargoyle staff