By Gargoyle sports staff

Posted Friday, May 25, 2007, The OG, boys track & sports

Senior Nicolas Pratt (3) runs the 400 dash this morning

at the Class A state track prelims in Charleston.

(Gargoyle photo) (click to enlarge)

CHARLESTON — Uni's 3,200-meter relay team will race one more time this season.

The 4x800 squad of sophomore Isaac Chambers, junior Jacob Olshansky, junior Austin Rundus, and sophomore Malcolm Taylor turned in the eighth-fastest time out of 32 teams this morning in the IHSA Class A state prelims.

They will now advance to Saturday's final at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Stadium.

Running in the 10-team first heat, the Illineks clocked in at a season-best 8 minutes, 17.05 seconds for a fifth-place finish.

Two other heats followed, but Uni's was by far the fastest and most competitive. Six of the 12 final qualifiers emerged from it, led by overall top seed Rochester (8:07.33).

The Illineks' time was a full 10 seconds faster than last week's sectional championship mark of 8:27.53. Despite winning that race, the squad members were disappointed with their performance and vowed to improve at the state prelims.

That's exactly what they did. Chambers and Olshansky each ran personal bests in their splits, according to head coach Doug Mynatt. In all, the Illineks cut more than 4 seconds off their previous season best of 8:21.8, which they ran at the Mahomet-Seymour Invite on May 12.

“Jacob's been stuck at 2:11 most of the year, and today he got down to around 2:07.9,” Mynatt said.

“I felt good,” Olshansky said. “I ran as hard in the last lap as I ever have before.”

Olshansky runs the second leg of the relay; Chambers runs leadoff.

“He [Olshansky] held the first-lap position the entire time,” said Chambers, who reduced his own time to about 2:02. “He's going to do well.”

The Illineks entered today's prelims seeded 16th. Now they will go into Saturday's race seeded eighth.

Here are the revised 4x800 seedings, listing only the 12 qualifiers and their times from this morning:

1. Rochester, 8:07.33
   
2. Winnebago, 8:09.08
   
3. Bloomington Central Catholic, 8:11.70
   
4. Byron, 8:12.43
   
5. Newton, 8:13.29
   
6. Monticello, 8:15.04
   
7. Westmont, 8:16.61
   
8. UNI HIGH, 8:17.05
   
9. Beecher, 8:18.42
   
10. Elmwood (Coop), 8:19.49
    
11. Walther Lutheran, 8:19.67
    
12. Robinson, 8:19.92
    

The top nine teams tomorrow will earn IHSA state medals. The last time a Uni male athlete won a state track medal was in 1999, when then-senior Jeff Helfrich placed seventh in the 1,600 run.

Last year, the 4x800 squad of Taylor, Rundus, and then-seniors Cameron Cropek and Kangway Chuang just missed winning a medal when they placed 10th in the finals with a time of 8:11.88, just a fraction of a second behind three other teams. (Taylor ran in the third spot last year and Rundus was anchor. This year they've switched positions.)

With Rundus and Taylor returning to the finals, this year's squad won't be entering unknown territory on Saturday.

“I was really nervous last year,” said Rundus. “Being anchor and being real young, it was nerve-wracking. But this year Malcolm and I are back. Isaac and Jacob both had great races today, so they've got to have a lot of confidence. We're back, and we know what we're doing now.”

Mynatt agreed.

“It shouldn't be a foreign experience to them,” Mynatt said of his two state veterans. “They should know what it takes to get that ninth place, to cross the line ahead of those other teams and bring a medal home.”

That experience applies not only to the race itself but to the brief 24-hour period leading up to it.

“The big key right now is recovery,” Mynatt said. “They're a little more educated, a little more on top of what they need to do to be ready for tomorrow.”

What does Chambers, in his first state meet, plan to do in the interim?

“Just a lot of rest, eating well,” he said. “It should be fun.”

Saturday's 4x800 will begin at 12:15 p.m. Tickets cost $10 and are available at the west side of O'Brien Stadium. For directions to the stadium, click here.

If you plan on going, your best bet is to arrive at least half an hour early. The Saturday meet features Class A and AA schools competing throughout the day, and the stadium fills up quickly.

Also today, Uni athletes competed in the 400 and 4x400 prelims but did not advance.

Senior Nicolas Pratt ran the 400 dash in 52.12 seconds to place sixth in his eight-man heat. His time ranked 18th out of 35 runners.

“I didn't do as well as I wanted to, but I was just glad to get here,” Pratt said. “It was a great experience. It's pretty amazing. I've never had this many people cheering me on. Everybody supports each other, even the teams you're competing against.”

The fastest time belonged to senior Dan Benton of Westmont (49.58). The slowest of the nine qualifiers, junior Blake Koerner of Effingham St. Anthony, ran the event in 51.27 seconds.

Pratt's best time this season was 51.52, which he recorded at the News-Gazette Honor Roll Meet on May 14.

As the only senior among Uni's five state qualifiers, Pratt said farewell to his high school athletic career today.

“I'm really glad that I did track this year,” he said. “I've always wanted to, but I've never really had the opportunity. This team has been really fun. It's been a great season — a good way to end my senior year.”

In the final Class A event of the day, the team of Chambers, junior Sam Imlay, Rundus, and Pratt recorded a time of 3:47.24 in the 4x400 relay. The Illineks placed eighth out of eight teams in their heat and 38th out of 38 teams overall.

Imlay ran in place of Taylor, who was nursing a tight hamstring.

Keeping Taylor out of the race was a precautionary measure. He will run Saturday in the 4x800 in his usual anchor position, according to Mynatt.

“When Malcolm's injury crept up, it was a good chance to get somebody else on the track and give them a little experience,” Mynatt said. “Who knows? Maybe Sam's back here next year in the varsity lineup.”

With Taylor running in the third spot in the 4x400 last week at sectionals, the team set a school record by finishing in 3:30.31.

The fastest team in today's prelims was Rochester (3:25.71). The slowest of the nine qualifying teams was Pinckneyville (3:28.68).

As for Saturday's big race, the 4x800 team is looking forward to bringing home Uni's first state track medal in eight years.

“We're seeded eighth, so if we stay within our seeds we'll get a medal,” Rundus said. “But I really wouldn't be happy with eighth place. If we don't win a medal, we'll come back next year, but we'll do what we can to get a medal [this year].”

Added Chambers: “We got our time down today quite a few seconds, and the finals are always faster, so I think we can do it. We have a pretty good chance.”

SNAPSHOTS FROM THE 2007 IHSA CLASS A STATE TRACK & FIELD PRELIMS,
O'BRIEN STADIUM, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, CHARLESTON

2007 BOYS VARSITY TRACK & FIELD RESULTS (OUTDOOR)

March 29: Gibson City Meet (at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 5th (out of 5 teams), 17 pts

• STORY: Relay teams run season bests at Indoor Classic (Outdoor results included in story)

• EVENT RESULTS (top 3 finishes):

— 110 hurdles: Nick Zukoski (fr), 3rd, 21.1

— 300 hurdles: Zukoski, 3rd, 57.8

— shot put: Frankie McFarland (jr), 3rd, 41-11.5

April 10: Gibson City Tri-Meet (at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 3rd (out of 3 teams)

• STORY: Uni athletes win 11 events against GCMS, PBL

• EVENT RESULTS (top 3 finishes):

— 400: Nick Pratt (sr), 1st, 54.06; Isaac Chambers (so), 3rd, 56.84

— 800: Malcolm Taylor (so), 1st, 2:10.1

— 3,200: Nathan Smith (fr), 3rd, 11:56.1

— 110 hurdles: Nick Zukoski (fr), 2nd, 21.4

— 4x200 relay: Carter Hutchens (so), Noel Knox (so), Cheng Luo (so), Kareem Sayegh (so), 1st, 1:46.0

— 4x400 relay: Pratt, Taylor, Jacob Olshansky (jr), Chambers, 1st, 3:53.2

— 4x800 relay: Taylor, Austin Rundus (jr), Chambers, Olshansky, 1st, 8:54.2

— long jump: Pratt, 3rd, 17-10

— shot put: Frankie McFarland (jr), 2nd, 41-3

April 20: Unity Boys Invitational (at Unity H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 9th (out of 13 teams)

• STORY: 4x800 team wins at Unity Invite, on pace for state

• EVENT RESULTS (top 10 finishes):

— 400: Nick Pratt (sr), 5th, 54.51; Isaac Chambers (so), 10th, 56.31

— 1,600: Jacob Olshansky (jr), 10th, 5:10.09; Sam Imlay (jr), 10th place, 5:10.09

— 3,200: Jack Snyder (fr), 10th, 11:46.42

— 110 hurdles: Nick Zukoski (fr), 8th, 21.19

— 300 hurdles: Carter Hutchens (so), 10th, 49.79

— 4x400 relay: Chambers, Rundus, Olshansky, Pratt, 4th, 3:42.34

— 4x800 relay: Chambers, Olshansky, Austin Rundus (jr), Malcolm Taylor (so), 1st, 8:39.08

— high jump: Pratt, 9th, 5-2

— long jump: Pratt, 4th, 18-3

— triple jump: Kareem Sayegh (so), 9th, 34-0

— shot put: Frankie McFarland (jr), 8th, 40-7

April 24: Unity Dual Meet (at Unity H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 2nd (out of 2 teams)

• STORY: none. In several of the events, Uni faced no competition; in others the competitors were overwhelmingly from Unity High. The meet gave both teams a chance to experiment with different lineups.

April 27: St. Joseph-Ogden Spartan Classic (at SJO H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 7th (out of 17 teams)

• STORY: 4x800 places first, 4x400 makes school history

• EVENT RESULTS (top 5 finishes):

— 400: Malcolm Taylor (so), 3rd, 52.55; Nick Pratt (sr), 4th, 52.72

— fresh/soph 400: Isaac Chambers (so), 3rd 55.00

— 4x400 relay: Chambers, Austin Rundus (jr), Taylor, Pratt (sr), 3rd, 3:34.49 (school record)

— 4x800 relay: Chambers, Jacob Olshansky (jr), Rundus, Taylor, 1st, 8:25.72

May 10: Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Invitational (at GCMS High School)

• TEAM FINISH: 4th (out of 5 teams)

• STORY: Pratt leads Illineks at GCMS Invitational

• EVENT RESULTS (top 3 finishes):

— 300 hurdles: Kareen Sayegh (so), 3rd, 54.1

— 4x200 relay (members to be posted): 3rd, 1:47.2

— 4x800 relay (members to be posted): 3rd, 9:51.2

— high jump: Nick Pratt (sr), 1st, 5-10

— shot put: Frankie McFarland (jr), 3rd, 40-2

May 12: Mahomet-Seymour Invite (at Mahomet-Seymour H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 10th (out of 16 teams)

• STORY: May 12 boys meet: Taylor, Pratt dominate 400 run at Mahomet; 4x800 looks strong

• EVENT RESULTS (top 8 finishes):

— 400: Malcolm Taylor (so), 1st, 51.7; Nick Pratt (sr), 2nd, 51.9

— 4x400: Isaac Chambers (so), Austin Rundus (jr), Taylor, Pratt, 5th, 3:36.5

— 4x800: Chambers, Jacob Olshansky (jr), Rundus, Taylor, 2nd, 8:21.8

May 14: News-Gazette Honor Roll Meet (at U of I Track & Field Stadium)

• TEAM FINISH: not applicable

• STORY: Illineks impress at News-Gazette Honor Roll Meet

• EVENT RESULTS (all finishes)

— 400: Nick Pratt (sr), 3rd, 51.52

— 4x800 relay: Isaac Chambers (so), Jacob Olshansky (jr), Austin Rundus (jr), Malcolm Taylor (so), 1st, 8:23.5

May 18: Class A Sectional (at Tuscola H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 6th (out of 16 teams)

• STORY: Pratt, two relays qualify for state

• EVENT RESULTS (top 6 finishes):

— 400: Nicolas Pratt (sr), 3rd, 51.64 (state qualifier)

— 4x400 relay: Isaac Chambers (so), Austin Rundus (jr), Malcolm Taylor (so), Pratt, 3rd, 3:30.31 (state qualifiers)

— 4x800 relay: Chambers, Jacob Olshansky (jr), Rundus, Taylor, 1st, 8:27.53 (state qualifiers)

— long jump: Pratt, 4th, 20-1/4 (personal record)

— high jump: Pratt, 6th, 5-6

— discus: Frankie McFarland, 132-2 1/4 (did not place in top 6 but set Uni record)

May 25: Class A State Meet (at Eastern Illlinois University)

• TEAM FINISH: not applicable

• STORY: see above

• EVENT RESULTS (all finishes):

— 400: Nicolas Pratt (sr), 6th in prelim heat, 18th out of 35 overall, 52.12

— 4x400 relay: Isaac Chambers (so), Sam Imlay (jr), Austin Rundus (jr), Nicolas Pratt (sr), 8th in prelim heat, 38th out of 38 overall, 3:47.24

— 4x800 relay: Chambers, Jacob Olshansky (jr), Rundus, Malcolm Taylor (so), 5th in prelim heat, 8th out of 32 overall, 8:17.05 (Saturday state final qualifiers)

Remaining meet: IHSA Class A state finals, Saturday, May 26. The 4x800 relay will begin at 12:15 p.m.