By Gargoyle sports staff
Posted Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006, The OG, sports

URBANA — The Uni girls cross country team has risen to fourth in the state among Class A schools in the latest Illinois Prep Top Times rankings.

The Illineks entered the IPTT list two weeks ago at No. 3. They dropped to fifth last week, despite two consecutive meet victories (at Tuscola and Clinton).

A second-place performance at Saturday's St. Joseph-Ogden Spartan Classic led to this week's rise in the rankings. At the SJO meet, the Illineks finished only five points between champion Eureka, ranked third in the state.

Also this week, junior Michelle Mehnert entered the list of top 20 Class A runners. Mehnert, in her first year of cross country after many years as a competitive swimmer, is ranked No. 14. On Saturday, she broke a 14-year-old record for fastest time by a Uni runner (freshman through junior) at the 1.97-mile Spartan Classic, beating Laurel Herendeen's 1992 time of 11:51 by one second.

Here are IPTT's top 15 Class A teams (comments are by IPTT):

1. Rockford Lutheran
2. Elmwood Brimfield
3. Eureka — Won at St. Joe
4. Urbana U-High — Close second at St. Joe behind Eureka
5. Winnebago
6. Rochester
7. PORTA
8. Robinson
9. Decatur St. Teresa — Third at St. Joe
10. Downs Tri-Valley — Fourth at St. Joe
11. Monmouth
12. Oregon
13. Bureau Valley — Fifth at St. Joe
14. Aurora Christian
15. Sherrard

Here are IPTT's top 20 Class A runners:

1. Katelyn Bastert (Carthage)
2. Stephanie Brown (Tri-Valley)
3. Ryan Eichelberger (Reed Custer)
4. Olivia Klaus (Eureka)
5. Alisa Baron (Bureau Valley)
6. Kelsee Viano (Carlinville)
7. Alex Palm (Winnebago)
8. Ann Schulte (Aurora Christian)
9. Erin Kelley (Tri-Valley)
10. Rachael Gortowski (Winnebago)
11. Mary Buzzard (Rockford Lutheran)
12. Kerby Waddell (Monticello)
13. Tara Pinkston (Robinson)
14. Michelle Mehnert (Uni High)
15. Morgan Melin (Monmouth)
16. Claire Brown (PORTA)
17. Leanne Murphy (Rochester)
18. Ashley Thomasma (PORTA)
19. Aftan Noon (Argenta Oreana)
20. Sara Peters (Oregon)

The Illineks compete again Oct. 7 at the Mahomet-Seymour Invitational.