By Gargoyle sports staff

Posted Sunday, March 18, 2007, The OG, sports

LAST MAY THE Uni boys 3,200-meter relay team of Cameron Cropek, Kangway Chuang, Malcolm Taylor, and Austin Rundus easily won a Class A sectional championship.

The squad followed that up with a 10th-place showing at the state finals, coming within a fraction of a second of winning a medal.

But with the graduation of Cropek and Chuang, can a new 4x800 relay team build on last year's success?

Taylor, now a sophomore, and Rundus, a junior, are back to provide experience and leadership. They are joined by sophomore Isaac Chambers and junior Jacob Olshansky.

On Saturday, the new squad demonstrated that it's a legitimate contender for a trip to state by qualifying for the Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic — the indoor equivalent of the IHSA outdoor state meet.

Rundus, Olshansky, Chambers, and Taylor placed fourth overall in a Class A field of 25 teams in the Charleston Boys Indoor Invitational. The Illineks recorded a season-best time of 8 minutes, 41.13 seconds, more than 7 seconds better than the automatic qualifying time of 8:48.64. (The Charleston meet used fully automatic timing.)

Last year, Cropek & Co. ran 8:45.20 to qualify for the Indoor Classic. They went on finish fourth out of 12 state-qualifying teams at the IPTT event, turning in a time of 8:25.27.

Overall, the Uni boys placed 30th out of 57 teams in Charleston (both Class A and AA), and 16th out of 34 Class A teams. (See below for complete Uni results.)

Although no one else among the Illineks qualified for the Indoor Classic at the Charleston meet, a number of Uni athletes turned in fine performances.

In the 800 run, Taylor placed fourth out of 55 runners. His time of 2:05.32 missed the IPTT qualifying mark by less than seven-tenths of a second (2:04.64). Rundus placed 13th in the same event, running 2:13.89.

In the 400 run, Chambers took 10th out of 25 runners with a time of 55.17 seconds, a little more than 2 seconds off the IPTT mark of 53.14.

In the 4x400 relay, the Uni squad of Chambers, Olshansky, Rundus, and Taylor placed 15th out of 32 teams. The Illinek time of 3:47.92 was only 4.78 seconds shy of the IPTT standard of 3:43.14.

The IPTT Class A Indoor Classic will be held March 30 for all qualifying male and female athletes. It will take place at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

INDOOR TRACK: OFFICIAL MEET RESULTS

(The times at most of Uni's indoor meets are unofficial and not included here)

March 10: Charleston Girls Indoor Invitational

TEAM FINISH: 10th out of 33 (Class A); 20th out of 55 (both Class A and AA)

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (all results are against Class A competition):

— 55m dash: Rachel Skoza, 35th (out of 55), 00:8.50; Rachel Harmon, 48th, 00:8.85

— 200m dash: Cheyenne Stewart, 27th (out of 32), 00:32.19

— 400m dash: Lizzy Warner, 5th (out of 30), 1:05.36

— 800m run: Shivani Khanna, 6th (out of 56), 2:34.07 *; Ruthie Welch, 7th, 2:34.08 *

— 1,600m run: Elaine Gu 9th (out of 56), 5:58.05; Elizabeth Russell, 14th, 6:08.63

— 55m hurdles: Paige Martin, 14th (out of 37), 00:10.11

— 4x200m relay: Uni (Harmon, Katherine Allen, Angie Jin, Skoza), 29th (out of 34), 2:09.56

— 4x400m relay: Uni (Warner, Skoza, Khanna, Aria Collopy), 11th (out of 29), 4:39.08

— 4x800m relay: Uni (Khanna, Gu, Collopy, Welch), 4th (out of 27), 10:30.24 *

— Pole vault: Paige Martin, 3rd (out of 10), 9 feet, 9 inches *

*Qualified for Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic, March 30, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington

March 17: Charleston Boys Indoor Invitational

TEAM FINISH: 16th out of 34 (Class A); 30th out of 57 (both Class A and AA)

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (all results are against Class A competition):

— 55m dash: Cheng Luo, 52th (out of 61), 00:7.61; Frankie McFarland, 58th, 00:8.00

— 400m dash: Isaac Chambers, 10th (out of 25), 00:55.17

— 800m run: Malcolm Taylor, 4th (out of 55), 2:05.32; Austin Rundus, 13th, 2:13.89

— 1,600m run: Marquis Wang, 40th (out of 51), 5:37.68; Julian Hartman, 42nd, 5:38.19

— 3,200m run: Jack Snyder, 30th (out of 42), 11:45.16; Nathan Smith, 31st, 11:46.26

— 4x200m relay: Uni (names to be posted), 27th (out of 29), 1:49.92

— 4x400m relay: Uni (Chambers, Olshansky, Rundus, Taylor), 15th (out of 32), 3:47.92

— 4x800m relay: Uni (Rundus, Olshansky, Chambers, Taylor), 4th (out of 25), 8:41.13 *

— Long jump: Kareem Sayegh, 26th (out of 31), 16 feet, 6 inches

— Triple jump: Kareem Sayegh, 19th (out of 25), 34 feet, 3.75 inches

*Qualified for Illinois Prep Top Times Indoor Classic, March 30, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington

ILLINOIS PREP TOP TIMES INDOOR CLASSIC QUALIFYING STANDARDS

— Girls 55m dash: 00:7.84

— Girls 200m dash: 00:28.44

— Girls 400m dash: 1:03.94

— Girls 800m run: 2:34.14

— Girls 1,600m run: 5:40.14

— Girls 55m hurdles: 00:9.74

— Girls 4x200m relay: 1:55.54

— Girls 4x400m relay: 4:29.64

— Girls 4x800m relay: 10:47.94

— Girls pole vault: 8ft, 6in

— Boys 55m dash: 00:6.84

— Boys 400m dash: 00:53.14

— Boys 800m run: 2:04.64

— Boys 1,600m run: 4:42.14

— Boys 3,200m run: 10:20.64

— Boys 4x200m relay: 1:37.94

— Boys 4x400m relay: 3:43.14

— Boys 4x800m relay: 8:48.64

— Boys long jump: 20ft, 6in/6.24m

— Boys triple jump: 39ft, 9in/12.11m