[UPDATED with more photos] What a week it's going to be in Uni track! Ruthie Welch will compete in the Class A state meet this weekend, the boys will compete in sectionals on Friday, and everything got off to a great start Monday night with three victories and two personal records in the annual News-Gazette Honor Roll Meet at the U of I.

Senior Ruthie Welch might have been the only Uni athlete to qualify for state at Friday night's Class A sectional meet at PBL, but several other Illineks came close. Check inside for photos of the action. Welch will compete in the state finals Friday in Charleston. If she makes the first-day cut in the 800, she will advance to the championship race on Saturday.

[AUDIO included] Senior Ruthie Welch won the 800-meter run Friday night in the Class A sectional meet at Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School. She ran the event in a meet-record time of 2 minutes, 22.37 seconds, almost 4 seconds faster than runner-up Erika Ramos of Hoopeston Area, a state finalist last year. Welch was the only Uni athlete to qualify for next weekend's Class A state finals at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

[UPDATED with photos] Senior Ruthie Welch won the 1,600-meter run and placed second in the 800 as the Illineks finished seventh overall at the Unity Girls Invitational Friday evening in Tolono. Twenty-one teams competed in the meet, making it the biggest challenge of the outdoor season so far for the Uni girls.

Last week at St. Joseph-Ogden, senior Malcolm Taylor dazzled spectators with a state-caliber performance in the 400-meter dash. This week at Paxton-Buckley-Loda, he quadrupled the distance and still came out on top, eclipsing his old cross-country rival from PBL, Felix Cardoso, by almost 11 seconds to win the 3,200 run. Taylor's performance was one of several Uni highlights at Tuesday's PBL coed meet.

Led by Malcolm Taylor's state-caliber performance in the 400-meter dash, the Uni girls and boys track teams came away from their first coed outdoor meet of the year with an impressive number of first-place finishes Thursday at St. Joseph-Ogden High School. Two days later, Uni athletes came up big again at the Tuscola freshman-sophomore girls meet.

Led by sophomore sprinter Rachel Harmon's third-place finish in the 200-meter dash, the Uni girls track team began the outdoor season Saturday with a solid performance at the Champaign County Meet.

The Illineks came up big at the Class A state indoor meet Friday in Bloomington, led by the second-place boys 4x800-meter relay team. Ruthie Welch finished third in the 800 run, and sprinter Tuli Bera took sixth in the 55 dash. Friday's meet was open only to the top track and field athletes in Class A.