EAST PEORIA — Uni subfreshmen made the top 10 in five events at the Illinois Elementary School Association's Class 8A state track and field finals, which ended Saturday. The two-day meet took place at the EastSide Centre.

The Uni contingent consisted of three girls and one boy. Sarah Vaughen led the Illineks with a sixth-place finish in the girls 1,600-meter run. In a field of 38 competitors, she ran the race in 5 minutes, 45.64 seconds. Madison Zimmer of Delavan won with a time of 5:24.94.

Vaughen's performance was the highest placing by a Uni subfreshman since 2006, when Elizabeth Russell finished fourth in the 1,600 (5:48.93).

Vaughen didn't stop there. The speedy distance runner placed ninth in the 800 out of 38 runners; she completed the event in 2:38.35, about 10 seconds behind winner Maureen Lawless of Peoria St. Philomena (2:28.19).

Fellow Illinek Bissy Michael also ran in the 800, finishing in 15th place (2:43.18).

Uni had one female athlete competing in field events. Emma Hoyer placed 10th in the discus throw with a distance of 83 feet, 1 inch. The winning toss of 104-4 belonged to Genny Stringer of Assumption Central A&M.

On the boys side, Nealay Kalita demonstrated that he is one of the state's top sprinters for his age group, placing in the top 10 in both the 100 and 200 dashes.

After making it through the 100 prelims, which involved 37 sprinters, Kalita ran the semifinals in 12.04 seconds and placed ninth.

He barely missed the eight-man finals, losing out to Bret Storm of Tonica (12.01) for the last spot from Heat 1 of the semis. Carvel Dixon of Madison won the finals in 11.54.

In the 200, Kalita finished seventh out of 35 sprinters, with a time of 25.65. He was barely one-tenth of a second behind fifth-place Jordan Kemp of Heyworth (25.52) and sixth-place Javonte Hollowell of Kewanee Wethersfield (25.53). Ryan Pearce of Villa Grove won the race (24.71)

Overall, the Uni girls tied Champaign Holy Cross for 44th place out of 55 scoring teams. The boys, represented by Kalita's one-man efforts, tied six other schools for 53rd place out of 63 teams.