Sophomore Cheyenne Stewart leads her Judah Christian opponent in the 4x100 relay at the Champaign County Meet. Gargoyle photos by Jason He (click to enlarge)

Senior Angie Jin competes in the long jump. She placed fourth with a distance of 12 feet, 9 3/4 inches. (click to enlarge)

URBANA — The Uni High girls competed in their first outdoor contest of the season Saturday at Urbana High School, turning in a solid performance at the Champaign County Meet.

Unlike the indoor season, this time the girls were up against the wind and had to adjust to the new length of the track (indoors the track is 200 meters total; outdoor the track is 400 meters total).

The Illineks were led by sophomore Rachel Harmon's third-place finish in the 200-meter dash. Harmon ran the event in 29.58 seconds. Rantoul's Kiara Clark-Lewis won with a time of 26.46.

Competing schools included Class AA powers Centennial, Urbana, and Rantoul. Class A schools were Uni, St. Joseph-Ogden, St. Thomas More, Judah Christian, and Fisher. Times were not fully automatic, and teams were unscored.

Sophomore sprinter Tuli Bera showed up for the meet after having placed sixth the previous night in the 55 dash at the Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic in Bloomington. But the team was short senior Ruthie Welch, who had placed third in the 800 at IPTT.

Although Welch was unable to run her leg of the 4x400, the relay (consisting of junior Rachel Skoza, sophomore Katherine Allen, freshman Ashley Huddson, and junior Lizzy Warner) was still able to finish fifth with a time of 4 minutes, 40.5 seconds. St. Thomas More won in 4:32.

Freshman Fiona Weingartner was also successful in her events, placing fourth in the 300 hurdles with a time of 58.62 and seventh in the long jump, covering 11 feet, 7 1/4 inches.

Senior Angie Jin led all Uni field athletes, finishing fourth in the long jump with a distance of 12-9 3/4.

Although Illinek athletes didn't place in any other events, the meet was noteworthy for the debut of Uni's 4x100 team, which was able to run for the first time in 2008. The relay consisted of sophomore Linda Ly, junior Deborah Ladd, senior Angie Jin, and sophomore Cheyenne Stewart. The squad finished with a time of 1:00.8.

Ladd also competed in the 800 for the first time, finishing with a time of 3:07.3.

Other runners included Stewart (15.41) and Ly (15.97) in the 100, Jin (32.7) in the 200, and Huddson (1:08.8) and Allen (1:09.7) in the 400.

Senior Linda Song covered a distance of 19-3 in the shot put and 52-9 1/2 in the discus.

The team's next contest will be Thursday at St. Joseph-Ogden in a coed meet.