By Erin Hayes & Gargoyle sports staff
Posted Friday, Oct. 27, 2006, The OG, sports

Only one more obstacle stands between the Uni High cross country teams and the IHSA Class A state finals: the Stanford Olympia sectional meet.

The boys and girls teams will compete Saturday at Olympia High School in Stanford, about 20 miles southwest of Bloomington. (Click here for directions.)

The girls will begin their race at 1 p.m., followed by the boys at 2 p.m. The top five teams in each race will advance to the state meet, which will be held Nov. 4 at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

THE GIRLS BRACKET

The Uni girls are currently ranked No. 7 in Class A by the online publication Illinois Prep Top Times. Their main competition at Saturday's meet will probably be Eureka High School, which is ranked No. 6. The Illineks won their regional meet last week, as did Eureka. (Click here for coverage of the St. Joseph girls regional.)

Four teams in the Class A Top 15 will compete in the sectional. Besides Eureka and Uni, the other ranked teams are No. 12 Decatur St. Teresa and No. 13 Tri-Valley. In all, 19 teams from four regional meets (Cowden, Eureka, Monticello, St. Joseph) will run in Saturday's race (only four teams advanced from Cowden).

The Illineks are led by juniors Michelle Mehnert and Shivani Khanna, freshman Elizabeth Russell, and sophomore Elaine Gu, who placed first, second, third, and fifth, respectively, at regionals.

Last year, the girls finished fourth at the Paxton-Buckley-Loda sectional to advance to state, where they placed 20th. Since 1998, the Uni girls have qualified for state six times, missing out only in 2002 and 2004.

THE BOYS BRACKET

The Uni boys came in fifth at their regional meet last week, earning the final sectional-qualifying spot. Sophomore Malcolm Taylor finished third overall, the highest regional placing by a Uni male runner since David Slichter placed third in 2001. (Click here for coverage of the St. Joseph boys regional.) Taylor is currently ranked No. 20 among Class A boys.

Besides Taylor, two other runners in Saturday's meet are ranked in the Class A Top 20: No. 3 Matt Morse of Peru St. Beda and No. 11 Nathan Warstler of Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman. Morse won last week's Eureka regional; Warstler took top honors at the St. Joseph meet.

If the Uni boys don't qualify for state as a team, Taylor has a chance to do so individually. The top seven individual runners from teams that do not qualify will advance to state. The last Uni male runner to make it to state was Drew Hauffe in 2003. Last year the boys placed eighth at the PBL sectional.

In all, 20 teams from four regional meets (Cowden, Eureka, Monticello, St. Joseph) will run in Saturday's race.

Note: Check back Saturday afternoon for the results of both sectional races.