BLOOMINGTON — Uni runners came up big at the annual Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic held Friday at Illinois Wesleyan University. The IPTT meet is considered the unofficial state finals for indoor track.

Multiple teams and individuals from Uni were invited to the Class A meet, but in the end sprinter Tuli Bera, distance runner Ruthie Welch, and the boys 4x800-meter relay squad were the only Illinek competitors.

Last year, the boys 4x800 team qualified for IPTT as well, and finished fifth with a time of 8:38.03.

This year, returning runners junior Isaac Chambers, senior Jacob Olshansky, senior Austin Rundus, and junior Malcolm Taylor qualified for the meet with a time of 8:33.36.

With a common goal of placing first at IPTT the boys had high hopes for themselves. Unfortunately Rundus became ill and was unable to compete. Instead, senior Sam Imlay stepped up and turned in a personal-record split time.

The boys finished second overall to Rochester (8:24.00) by approximately 20 meters, and came across the line with a time of 8:26.36.

To put that in perspective, the Uni 4x800 team of Chambers, Olshansky, Rundus, and Taylor placed seventh at the last year's outdoor state finals while Rochester finished first, so the boys are looking forward to the coming outdoor season.

In other action at the IPTT meet, Welch placed third out of 12 finalists in the 800 run, and Bera took sixth out of 14 finalists in the 55 dash.

Welch, a senior, ran the 800 in 2:24.56, cutting almost 14 seconds off her time from last year's meet. In 2007, Welch placed 12th out of 14 runners, finishing in 2:38.41. This year, only second-place Regina George of St. Gregory (2:14.90) and winner Stephanie Brown of Tri-Valley (2:13.23) ran faster than Welch. Welch's time is already approximately three seconds faster than that which would qualify her for outdoor state, and it is expected that she will only continue to drop time.

Bera, a sophomore, is the first Uni female sprinter in Doug Mynatt's 12 years as head coach to qualify individually for the IPTT. She ran the finals in 7.65 seconds, just barely finishing behind fifth-place Ariel Hainline of Sherrard (7.63) and fourth-place Danielle Gronewold of Illini West (7.62). Kayla Heal of Henry won the event in 7.36 seconds.