By Gargoyle sports staff

Posted Sunday, May 13, 2007, The OG, girls track & sports

CATLIN — For the second year in a row, Uni's 3,200-meter relay team has won a sectional championship.

The 4x800 squad of sophomore Lizzy Warner, senior Aria Collopy, junior Shivani Khanna, and junior Ruthie Welch placed first in the Class A Sidell (Jamaica) sectional Friday at Catlin High School with a season-best time of 10 minutes, 12.34 seconds.

Freshman Elizabeth Russell, shown in a dual

meet with Unity on April 24, qualified for state

in the 1,600 at sectionals Friday. (Gargoyle photo)

(click to enlarge)

Their time was more than 3 seconds faster than their previous best of 10:15.50, which they recorded April 27 at the Lady Sages Invitational in Monticello with sophomore Elaine Gu running in place of Collopy.

“It was a great race,” Khanna said. “It was really intense because we were in about third or fourth place when I got the baton as the third runner, and by the time I handed off the baton I was in first place and Ruthie kept that, so it was great.”

Bismarck-Henning finished second with a time of 10:17.88.

Both teams will advance to the IHSA state finals, which will take place Friday and Saturday at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

“We ran an overall time that was approximately 4 seconds faster than what the 4x800 ran last year at sectionals, which is pretty amazing,” Warner said. “There is still a lot of competition, but it's really exciting nonetheless — and I'm sure we can definitely drop even more time at state!”

Last year the 4x800 team of Khanna, Welch, then-freshman Laura Hazlett (who has since moved), and then-senior Josie Chambers won the Gibson City sectional with a time of 10:16.00.

Also at sectionals, freshman Elizabeth Russell qualified for state by placing second in the 1,600-meter run. She clocked in at 5:39.23.

Cara Feeney of St. Thomas More won the event in 5:35.22.

On Thursday at St. Joseph-Ogden High School, senior Paige Martin qualified for state by winning the sectional title in the pole vault.

Martin vaulted 9 feet, 9 inches. Sarah Schaefer of Unity placed second with a vault of 9-0.

You would have to go back to the “glory days” of Uni girls track in the early to mid-1990s to find such a large and diverse field of Illinek state qualifers.

“The night as a whole was really successful,” Khanna said, “and I think that having so many people qualify will make the trip to state a lot of fun.”

To make the cut for state, athletes had to finish in the top two of their events at sectionals or meet the automatic state qualifying standards in their events, also at sectionals.

Uni's 4x800 runners easily met the automatic standard in their event (10:23.74), as did Martin in hers (8-6). Russell was just a few seconds shy of her automatic time (5:36.24).

Several Illineks had strong showings in other events, even though they fell short of state.

In the 400, Warner placed sixth with a time of 1:05.55. The automatic state qualifying standard was 1:02.04.

In the 800, Welch came in fourth (2:35.83) and Khanna fifth (2:35.97). The automatic state qualifying time was 2:27.24.

In the triple jump, Martin placed fifth (31-6) and Russell sixth (30-10.5). The automatic state qualifying standard was 33-5.

Now the six statebound Illineks will turn their attention to the state meet. On Friday, the preliminaries will determine who competes in the Saturday finals.

In the running events, the winners of the three prelim heats will each automatically qualify; the remainder of the field will consist of the nine fastest remaining competitors, regardless of heat.

In the pole vault, there will not be a fixed number of qualifers for Saturday. Instead, a qualifying height will be determined based on performances in the first flight on Friday. Last year, 13 girls in Class A made it to the Saturday round.

In the pole vault, 48 girls have qualified for Friday's prelims. Martin's sectional vault of 9-9 ranks fifth, but she has nine athletes ahead of her (six are tied at 10-0). The top vaulter, defending champion Katherine Hendricks of Carterville, recorded 11-4.

In the 4x800, 41 teams have advanced to state. Uni's time ranks 17th. The fastest time belongs to Central A&M (9:55.24).

In the 1,600 run, 38 girls qualified for state. Russell's time ranks 23rd. The top runner, Katelyn Bastert of Carthage, recorded a 5:00.04.

To win a medal at state, athletes must finish in the top nine of their events in the Saturday finals. The last time a Uni female athlete won a state medal in track was 1995, when Cindy Wang placed fifth in the 100 and sixth in the 200.

2007 GIRLS VARSITY TRACK & FIELD RESULTS (OUTDOOR)

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

• TEAM FINISH: 5th (out of 5 teams), 30 pts

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

• EVENT RESULTS (top 3 finishes):

— 100: Rachel Skoza (so), 2nd, 14.35

— 3,200: Elizabeth Russell (fr), 3rd, 13:56.7

— 4x200 relay: Skoza, Katherine Allen (fr), Angie Jin (jr), Lizzy Warner (so), 3rd, 2:03.08

— 4x400 relay: Skoza, Allen, Russell, Warner, 2nd, 4:41.6

— high jump: Russell, 3rd, 4-8

— triple jump: Russell, 1st, 30-0

March 31: Champaign County Meet (at Urbana H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: No overall team standings were compiled

• STORY: Uni athletes take first in three events at county meet

• EVENT RESULTS (top 5 finishes):

— 400: Lizzy Warner (so), 4th, 1:09.8

— 3,200: Elizabeth Russell (fr), 5th, 14:01

— 4x200 relay: Rachel Skoza (so), Katherine Allen (fr), Cheyenne Stewart (fr), Warner, 4th, 2:00.1

— 4x400 relay: Skoza, Allen, Linda Ly (fr), Warner, 1st, 4:49

— 4x800 relay: Shivani Khanna (jr), Elaine Gu (so), Aria Collopy (sr), Ruthie Welch (jr), 1st, 10:48

— high jump: Russell, 3rd, 4-6

— long jump: Angie Jin (jr), 4th, 14-1

— triple jump: Russell, 1st, 29-11

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

• TEAM FINISH: 2nd (out of 3 teams)

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

• EVENT RESULTS (top 3 finishes):

— 200: Cheyenne Stewart (fr), 2nd, 31.04

— 400: Aria Collopy (sr), 1st, 1:07.41; Ruthie Welch (jr), 2nd, 1:08.6

— 800: Shivani Khanna (jr), 1st, 2:40.1; Elizabeth Russell (fr), 2nd, 2:45.6

— 1,600: Katie Easley (sr), 2nd, 6:56.8

— 3,200: Elaine Gu (so), 2nd, 13:02.6

— 4x200 relay: Rachel Skoza (so), Katherine Allen (fr), Stewart, Lizzy Warner (so), 1st, 2:00.6

— 4x400 relay: Welch, Khanna, Skoza, Warner, 1st, 4:38.7

— 4x800 relay: Warner, Collopy, Welch, Khanna, 1st, 10:48.9

— long jump: Angela Jin (jr), 3rd, 12-1

— triple jump: Russell, 1st, 28-9

April 13: Unity Girls Invitational (at Unity H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 11th (out of 21 teams)

• STORY: Relay teams run seasonal bests at Unity Invite

• EVENT RESULTS (top 10 finishes):

— 400: Lizzy Warner (so), 8th, 1:04.87; Aria Collopy (sr), 9th, 1:06.17

— 800: Ruthie Welch (jr), 3rd, 2:32.51

— 1,600: Elaine Gu (so), 4th, 5:55.02

— 4x400 relay: Welch, Elizabeth Russell (fr), Collopy, Warner, 5th, 4:33.48

— 4x800 relay: Welch, Collopy, Russell, Gu, 2nd, 10:39.24

— long jump: Angie Jin (jr), 8th, 13-07.25

— triple jump: Russell, 8th, 29-07.50

April 20: Falcon Invitational (at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 11th (out of 16 teams)

• STORY: Illineks tune up for sectionals with Falcon Invitational

• EVENT RESULTS (top 5 finishes):

— 800: Ruthie Welch (jr), 5th, 2:35.77

— 1,600: Elizabeth Russell (fr), 3rd, 5:46.41; Shivani Khanna (jr), 5th, 5:47.14

— 4x400 relay: Welch, Khanna, Aria Collopy (sr), Rachel Skoza (so), 5th, 4:37.85

— 4x800 relay: Welch, Collopy, Khanna, Elaine Gu (so), 2nd, 10:31.07

— Distance medley relay: Skoza, Gu, Linda Ly (fr), Katherine Allen (fr), 3rd, 4:56.25

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. “The best thing about the meet was we learned how to compete against ourselves — how to push ourselves,” said junior Shivani Khanna.

April 27: Monticello Lady Sages Invitational (at Monticello H.S)

• TEAM FINISH: 14th (out of 21 teams)

• STORY: Martin, 4x800 team excel at Lady Sages Invitational

• EVENT RESULTS (top 15 finishes):

— 200: Rachel Skoza (so), 12th (semifinals heat), 29.79

— 400: Lizzy Warner (so), 10th, 1:05.84; Aria Collopy (sr), 12th, 1:06.55

— 800: Shivani Khanna (jr), 5th, 2:31.17; Ruthie Welch (jr), 7th, 2:33.44

— 1,600: Elizabeth Russell (fr), 5th, 5:49.10; Elaine Gu (so), 7th, 5:51.76

— 300 low hurdles: Paige Martin (sr), 14th, 55.60

— 4x200 relay: Skoza, Katherine Allen (fr), Cheyenne Stewart (fr), Rachel Harmon (fr), 10th, 2:01.31

— 4x400 relay: Welch, Khanna, Collopy, Warner, 7th, 4:26.79

— 4x800 relay: Warner, Khanna, Gu, Welch, 3rd, 10:15.50

— Triple jump: Martin, 7th, 30-0; Russell, 11th, 28-10.5

— Pole vault: Martin, 2nd, 9-0

May 4: Lady Spartan Classic (at St. Joseph-Ogden H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 9th (out of 18 teams)

• STORY: Shorthanded Uni turns in strong performance at Lady Spartan Classic

• EVENT RESULTS (top 6 finishes):

— 1,600: Elizabeth Russell (fr), 6th, 5:52.63

— 4x200 relay: Rachel Skoza (so), Katherine Allen (fr), Cheyenne Stewart (fr), Rachel Harmon (fr), 5th, 1:57.11

— 4x400 relay: Skoza, Russell, Aria Collopy (sr), Lizzy Warner (so), 6th (tie with St. Thomas More), 4:31.28

— 4x800 relay: Warner, Shivani Khanna (jr), Collopy, Ruthie Welch (jr), 3rd, 10:22.01

— Triple jump: Paige Martin (sr), 2nd, 31-6

— Pole vault: Martin, 1st, 10-0

May 10: Class A Sidell (Jamaica) Sectional (at St. Joseph-Ogden H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: not applicable (this was for pole vault only)

• STORY: Martin wins sectional title in pole vault

• EVENT RESULT:

— Pole vault: Paige Martin (sr), 1st, 9-9 (IHSA state qualifier) (automatic state qualifying standard: 8-6)

May 11: Class A Sidell (Jamaica) Sectional (at Catlin H.S.)

• TEAM FINISH: 8th (out of 16 teams)

• STORY: see above

• EVENT RESULTS (top 6 finishes):

— 400: Lizzy Warner (so), 6th, 1:05.55 (automatic state qualifying time: 1:02.04)

— 800: Ruthie Welch (jr), 4th, 2:35.83; Shivani Khanna (jr), 5th, 2:35.97 (automatic state qualifying time: 2:27.24)

— 1,600: Elizabeth Russell (fr), 2nd, 5:39.23 (IHSA state qualifier) (automatic state qualifying time: 5:36.24)

— 4x800 relay: Warner, Aria Collopy (sr), Khanna, Welch, 1st, 10:12.34 (IHSA state qualifier) (automatic state qualifying time: 10:23.74)

— Triple jump: Paige Martin (sr), 5th, 31-6; Russell, 6th, 30-10.5 (automatic state qualifying standard: 33-5)

Remaining meets: see schedule