Posted Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006, The OG, sports

ST. JOSEPH — Each year the St. Joseph-Ogden Spartan Classic attracts some of the top boys and girls cross country teams in the state. This year was no exception. The meet gave Uni runners a chance to see how they measure up against truly elite competition. The verdict? The Illineks compare quite favorably. The girls placed second overall, just five points behind powerhouse Eureka, currently ranked third in the state. (Uni is ranked fifth.) Junior Michelle Mehnert (sixth), freshman Elizabeth Russell (14th), junior Shivani Khanna (15th), and sophomore Elaine Gu (26th) led the way for Uni. On the boys side, the team placed 19th out of 26 squads, but sophomore Malcolm Taylor finished 15th individually as he continued his quest for state. As shown in the photos below, Taylor battled it out with sophomore Josh Clark of Monticello to the very end. Taylor recorded a time of 16 minutes, 12 seconds on the 2.95-mile course, while Clark ran a 16:14. Taylor and Clark have been dueling throughout most of this season for the honor of area's top sophomore distance runner. (Click here for the Gargoyle story about the girls' performance. Click here for the complete official results for both girls and boys.)

photos by David Porreca