Every Monday we will publish a summary of the previous week's action in the Uni varsity sports world. As the fall season progresses, we'll keep track of the accomplishments of boys and girls cross country, boys soccer, girls swimming, and girls volleyball.

BOYS CROSS COUNTRY

Junior Albert Anastasio (65) had a team-high fourth-place finish at the Spartan Classic. Gargoyle photos by Wyatt Bensken & Linda Ly (click to enlarge)

Two more meets, two more top-three finishes for the Illineks. On Tuesday, Uni won the three-mile Clinton Quad Meet, their fourth win on the season, over Tolono, St. Thomas More and Clinton. With 21 points, seven Illineks finished in the top 10.

Junior Albert Anastasio (17:08) won the meet, just ahead of senior Nathan Smith (17:09), who finished second. Six other Illineks finished under 18 minutes, with just 10 seconds separating senior Jack Snyder (17:44) at fifth and junior Buck Walsh (17:54) at 11th.

Sophomore Iain Konigsberg (17:45) and junior Ziran Shang (17:47) rounded out the team's scoring at sixth and seventh, easily giving Uni the victory. Just behind were seniors Andrew Weatherhead (17:52) and Langston Allston-Yeagle (17:53) at 10th and 11th. Nine more Illineks finished in the top 30, and 17 ran the race in all, a testament to the Illineks’ depth.

The course was a tad shorter for Saturday’s St. Joseph-Ogden Spartan Classic at 2.95 miles. This time the boys competed against runners from 26 other schools. The Illineks finished third overall with 121 points, just one point behind second-place St. Joseph-Ogden. Monticello won the meet with 81 points.

Anastasio was again Uni’s fastest runner, finishing fourth (15:18), with Smith finishing four seconds behind at sixth overall (15:22).

Five more Illineks got their time below 17 minutes, but it wasn’t enough for the win. Walsh finished 28th (16:21), and a trio of seniors rounded out the top 50: Allston-Yeagle at 43rd (16:43), Weatherhead at 49th (16:48), and Snyder at 50th (16:50). Shang (16:55) finished 55th.

Uni has no more varsity meets until Oct. 10, when the Illineks finish the regular season in Toledo at the Cumberland Invitational.

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Junior Emma Coverdill was the third-fastest runner for the Uni girls at the Spartan Classic, placing 58th. Gargoyle photos by Wyatt Bensken & Linda Ly (click to enlarge)

The girls also had a successful week, starting off with a second-place finish at the Clinton Quad Meet. With 45 points, the Illineks finished comfortably ahead of Tolono Unity (58) and Clinton (98) but couldn't catch St. Thomas More (28).

As in the boys meet, Uni’s 1-2 runners finished just a second apart, this time with senior Elizabeth Russell (21:26) edging freshman Sarah Vaughen (21:27) for third place. Junior Emma Coverdill (22:41) also made the top 10, finishing ninth.

Five more Illineks made the top 20. Sophomore Christina Harden (23:27) also won a tight footrace, beating out classmate Tanya Denisova (23:38) for 14th place. After Denisova, senior Brittany Scheid (23:54) was the next to cross the finish line, at 16th.

Senior Linda Ly (24:31) and sophomore Marie Lilly (24:59) rounded out the top 20 at 19th and 20th, respectively.

Saturday’s course at St. Joseph was shorter than the boys’, at just 1.97 miles. Nonetheless, Uni put in another fine team performance, finishing 10th out of 23 teams, with 275 points.

Russell was again Uni’s fastest runner, finishing at just over a 6-minute mile pace, her time of 12:02 good for 18th overall. Vaughen (12:37) came in 40th, one of five Illineks in the top 100.

Coverdill (12:57) finished 58th, and Harden (13:32) once again barely beat Denisova (13:34) to the finish line, the two finishing 93rd and 95th, respectively.

Scheid (13:52) at 111th, and Ly (14:28) at 132nd rounded out a solid varsity showing.

Like the boys team, Oct. 10’s Cumberland Invitational is all that stands between the Illineks and the Class 1A postseason, which begins with regionals at Kickapoo State Park on Oct. 24..

BOYS SOCCER

Freshman Patrick Wong (9) scored Uni's only goal in the Illineks' dramatic 1-1 tie with Champaign Central on Thursday. Gargoyle photo by Nancy Tang (click to enlarge)

The Illineks only played one game last week, but what a game it was. The boys tied Class 2A Champaign Central 1-1 on Thursday night, showing they can compete against quality larger schools.

Freshman Patrick Wong scored Uni’s only goal in the 20th minute, on an assist from classmate Tarik Koric. Only a header from a free kick in the 58th minute kept Uni from pulling off the major upset.

Over the past two years, Uni has played Central twice and lost big both times. Last year it was a 7-0 loss, and the year before the loss was 7-1. Three years ago, however, Uni pulled off a 2-1 upset, so the territory wasn’t completely uncharted.

The 6-4-3 Illineks also found out their Class 1A playoff assignments last week. Uni is seeded fourth in the Danville Schlarman regional and will take on Catlin (co-op) when the playoffs begin Oct. 13.

This coming week could be a challenging one for the Illineks. Uni faces Warrensburg-Latham on Monday, a 1A powerhouse from the Decatur area seeded No. 2 in the Fisher regional behind Monticello, a team that defeated Uni 2-1 on Sept. 5.

On Thursday the Illineks take on Normal Calvary Baptist in one of Uni's two remaining East Central Illinois Conference matchups. After that the team heads to Urbana on Saturday to take on the Class 2A Tigers in what should be an intriguing inter-class matchup. Last week Urbana also tied Central, 2-2.

GIRLS SWIMMING

Senior Sian Best (left) won the 100-yard butterfly and was part of the winning 200-medley relay team during Uni's 129-77 victory over O'Fallon Saturday. Gargoyle photo by Stephanie Overmier (click to enlarge)

The Anemones won their second one-on-one meet of the season, defeating O’Fallon Township 129-77 Saturday at the ARC. Uni swimmers won nine of their 11 events.

Two underclassmen — freshman Bissy Michael and sophomore Milee Nelson — won two events each. Besides easily winning the 500-yard freestyle (6:25.16) and the 100 breaststroke (1:17.98), Michael was a part of both winning relay teams: the 200 medley (2:06.66) and the 200 freestyle (1:56.00).

Nelson, who qualified for state last year, continued to perform well, winning the 200 medley (2:24.60) and the 100 backstroke (1:17.98). She also anchored the winning 200-medley relay.

A trio of seniors also won individual events for the Illineks. Erika Belmont won the 50 freestyle (27.65), Sian Best took the 100 butterfly (1:10.12), and Liz Allen (1:05.69) claimed the 100 freestyle over junior Victoria Wong (1:06.27) in the closest event of the meet.

Belmont, Best, Michael and Nelson made up Uni’s winning 200-medley relay squad, and Allen, Belmont, Michael and Wong made up the 200 freestyle relay.

Uni lost only two events on the day: sophomore Amanda Dolan (2:23.02) barely got edged out in the 200 freestyle, and the 400 freestyle relay team (4:17.28) finished as runner-up by less than two seconds.

The Anemones have two meets this week. On Tuesday they will swim in the Centennial Tri-Meet against Centennial and Danville, and on Saturday they head to Danville for a one-on-one meet.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

It was a tough week for the Illineks, as they lost both of their matches, dropping their record to 7-10 overall, 4-1 in conference play.

On Monday, Uni hosted nonconference foe Arthur Okaw Christian at Kenney Gym but couldn’t pull away with the victory. After losing the first set 17-25, the Illineks made the second one close, but Arthur came away with the 25-22 win.

Senior Tuli Bera led Uni with six kills. Sophomore Jamie Blue had four blocks. Senior Michelle Wong led Uni with 16 assists and three aces. Fellow senior Chumin Gao had four digs.

At that point, the Illineks’ perfect East Central Illinois Conference mark was still alive, but they hadn’t faced the powerful Decatur Lutheran School Association squad.

LSA, which has dominated ECIC volleyball for most of the conference's history, ensured Uni wouldn’t finish with a perfect conference record by winning handily in straight sets: 25-7, 25-10.

Freshman Emma Hoyer led Uni with three kills, and Blue had two blocks, but there was little success up front. Bera had a team-high five digs and one of Uni’s two aces. Wong again led Uni with nine assists.

The JV, however, stayed much more competitive. Uni lost the first set 15-25, but won the second 25-23, and almost won the third, falling 22-25.

Uni will have several matches this week. The Illineks make the short trip Tuesday to Judah Christian for their first match of the season against their crosstown ECIC rival. On Thursday the girls head to Buckley Christ Lutheran for another conference match, then they go back to Buckley for the annual BCL Tournament.