Posted Friday, May 12, 2006, The OG, sports

It seems like only yesterday that varsity runner Shivani Khanna said of subbie Elizabeth Russell, “She's incredible!”

In fact, it was yesterday, the eve of today's Illinois Elementary School Association eighth-grade girls track and field state championships in East Peoria.

Khanna was referring to Russell's Class A state-qualifying time in the 1,600-meter run of just slightly more than six minutes (6:00.47).

Russell put up even better numbers today, placing fourth in the state with a blistering time of 5:48.93, less than one second behind the third-place mark of 5:48.24.

The subfreshman entered the finals seeded 18th out of 42 qualifiers. No other runner in the final top 10 made a bigger leap in the standings than Russell.

According to head track coach Doug Mynatt, Russell's finish was the highest at the IESA state meet for any subbie since Joanna Cranston placed third in the 1,600 in 1998.

— Gargoyle staff

[Note: This article was updated on May 14 to include Doug Mynatt's information about Joanna Cranston's 1998 race.]