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

The Illineks, ranked seventh in the state in Class 1A, continued their fast pace last week, finishing first and second at the Uni home meet and the Tuscola Invitational, respectively.

Uni’s second and final meet in the Twin Cities this season occurred on Tuesday at the U of I Arboretum, and the Illineks made sure their fans saw a victory, defeating second-place Paxton-Buckley-Loda by 27 points.

In the five-school event, six Illineks placed in the top 10. Junior Albert Anastasio (17:13) was the first Illinek to finish, at No. 2 overall, just a second ahead of senior Nathan Smith (17:14). Junior Buck Walsh (17:28) finished fourth. Only PBL's Tom Pacey, the state's top-ranked runner in Class 1A, finished ahead of the Uni trio, crossing the finish line in 16:59.

Three other Illineks finished 7-8-9: junior Ziran Shang (18:03), senior Jack Snyder (18:12), and senior Langston Allston-Yeagle (18:33).

Six other Uni runners covered the three-mile course in under 20 minutes: seniors Andrew Weatherhead (18:45) and Eric Fritzsche (19:00), juniors Austin Black (19:00), Miles Ross (19:13), and Jack Feser (19:44), and sophomore Ryosuke Minami (19:33).

On Saturday at Wimple Park in Tuscola, Uni’s times improved across the board. The Illineks finished second in the 15-team field, their 52 points just seven behind winner Monticello.

Anastasio (16:43) and Smith (16:45) were again Uni’s top two runners, finishing third and fourth, respectively.

Four more Illineks broke 18 minutes. Walsh (17:18) finished 11th and Shang (17:39) 18th. Rounding out Uni’s top seven were Weatherhead (17:45) at 21st, Allston-Yeagle (17:49) at 23rd, and sophomore Iain Konigsberg (18:05) at 27th.

The Illineks have two more meets this week: on Tuesday at the Clinton Quad Meet, and on Saturday at the Spartan Classic in St. Joseph. After this week, only Oct. 10’s Cumberland Invitational stands between the Illineks and the postseason.

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Like the boys team, the girls enjoyed success at their two meets last week. Competing at home Tuesday against the same schools as the boys (PBL, Judah Christian, Bismarck-Henning, Arthur), their margin of victory was smaller, but the end result — a victory — was the same.

Senior Elizabeth Russell (22:56) again had the fastest time on the team, finishing second overall. Five Illineks occupied the eighth through 12th spots, all finishing within 29 seconds of each other.

Junior Emma Coverdill (24:13) was Uni’s second scoring runner, followed by sophomores Elena Bauer (24:21) and Tanya Denisova (24:27). Senior Brittany Scheid (24:38) rounded out the Uni’s scoring and the meet’s top 11, with sophomore Christina Harden (24:42) not far behind.

Like the boys team, the girls showed improvement at Tuscola. Although they finished fifth overall (out of 12 teams), each runner improved on Tuesday’s time. Russell (20:24) finished eighth, with her second-fastest time on the year.

Freshman Sarah Vaughen (21:52) also had a strong showing, finishing 26th. Coverdill (22:07) finished not far behind, at 31st. Three Uni runners placed just outside the top 40: Scheid (23:04) at 41st, Harden (23:07) at 43rd, and Denisova (23:08) at 44th. Senior Linda Ly (23:53) finished 55th.

The girls next compete at Tuesday’s Clinton Quad Meet, followed by Saturday’s Spartan Classic. As with the boys squad, the Cumberland Invitational is the girls’ final meet before the postseason.

BOYS SOCCER

After two matchups the week before in which the boys scored in double figures (10-0 over Decatur Christian on Sept. 10 and 12-0 over Sullivan-Lovington on Sept 12), scoring was much harder to come by for the varsity in their two games last week.

Bad luck plagued the Illineks in Tuesday’s nonconference game at Oakwood. Despite 22 shots on goal to Oakwood’s seven, only one of Uni’s shots made it through the goalposts. Oakwood’s Logan Cronk started off the scoring with an unassisted goal in the ninth minute, but despite nine shots on goal for the Illineks in the half, none went through.

It was halfway through the second half before another ball touched the back of the net. Conner Youhas gave the Comets a 2-0 advantage, scoring on a penalty kick in the 58th minute.

Eight minutes later, Dan Lilly cut the deficit in half, with his 22nd goal of the year, on an assist from sophomore Conrad Schloer. But no scoring happened after that.

Uni outshot the Comets 13-3 on the half, but Oakwood’s goalie Ben Schmidt made 15 saves on the day. Uni’s senior goalie Nile Hamer made five saves.

Defense was the name of the game on Thursday, when the Illineks took on Danville Schlarman at home in another nonconference test. Uni recorded its fifth shutout of the year, but the prolific Illinek offense — which had averaged a full five goals per game up to that point — was itself shut out.

Hamer made 10 saves on the match, four in the first half and six in the second. Uni managed 14 shots on goal, but none made it into the net.

The Illineks are now 6-4-2 on the season, with a 1-1 East Central Illinois Conference mark. This week will feature a game Thursday against in-town rival Champaign Central, which has outscored Uni 14-1 over the last two years.

Uni has scored 4.58 goals per game in 12 varsity contests this year. Lilly, who broke the Uni career goal-scoring record in the win against Sullivan-Lovington, has accounted for 40 percent of Uni’s goals. Other scoring has come from freshmen Patrick Wong (11 goals) and Tarik Koric (5), junior Chris Mathy (5), sophomore Conrad Schloer (5), freshman Paul Seeley (3), sophomores Brandon Lin (2) and Dax Earl (1), and freshman Alex Mestre (1).

In JV action, Uni fell to 2-5-1 on the season, losing 3-2 to Danville Baptist on Tuesday and 3-0 to Danville Schlarman on Thursday. Against Danville Baptist, sophomore Johnny Shapley and freshman Aaron Wilson scored for the Illineks.

GIRLS SWIMMING

The Anemones had only one meet last week: an invitational Saturday at Centennial that featured top teams from throughout the state, including champion Lincoln-Way East. Uni finished 12th overall, with a total of 69 points.

Sophomore Milee Nelson turned in Uni's top performances, placing second in the 200-yard freestyle (2:01.01) and third in the 500 freestyle (5:21.75).

Uni had competed in one other meet on the season up to that point: a 124-44 win over host Stanford Olympia on Sept. 5.

Uni won all 11 of the events in that first meet. Nelson and senior Sian Best each won all four events they competed in. Best won the 100 butterfly (1:12) and 100 backstroke (1:13), while Nelson won the 200 free (2:07) and 500 free (5:33). Best, Nelson, and sophomores Amalia Dolan and Anna Rubakhina combined to win the 400 free relay (4:29).

In other individual events at Stanford Olympia, freshman Elizabeth Michael (2:36) won the 200 medley, junior Victoria Wong (30.69) won the 50 free, senior captain Erika Belmont (1:05) won the 100 free, and Michael (1:20) won the 100 breaststroke.

The 200 medley relay of Belmont, Best, Michael and Rubakhina clocked in at 2:15, and the 200 free relay of Belmont, Nelson, Michael and Rubakhina finished in 2:00 flat.

The Anemones’ next meet will be Saturday against Charleston and O’Fallon at ARC on the U of I campus.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

The Illineks rebounded from a 1-3 record at the Sept. 12 Westville Invite with two conference wins last week, keeping their perfect ECIC record alive.

Uni began the week at home with a tight three-set win over conference foe Normal Calvary Baptist. After falling in the first set 19-25, Uni came back with a vengeance in the second set, winning 25-9.

The visiting Crusaders did all they could to give the Illineks their first ECIC loss, but to no avail, as Uni came away with a narrow 26-24 win in the final set to raise its conference record to 3-0.

Senior Rachel Harmon finished with 11 kills, her season high. Harmon also led the Illineks in blocks, with five. Fellow senior Michelle Wong hit five aces and had 16 assists on the evening.

Uni’s nonconference struggles continued on Thursday, as the girls fell to Fisher in straight sets at home: 10-25, 15-25. The Illineks fell to 3-8 against nonconference opponents on the year.

Harmon led Uni in kills, with five, and recorded the team’s only block on the night. Senior Chumin Gao recorded eight digs, and Wong again led the Illineks with six assists.

Friday featured yet another close conference matchup, this time against DeLand-Weldon. Both sets were decided by just two points, but Uni won them both: 26-24, 27-25. The Illineks improved to 4-0 in the ECIC and 7-8 overall with the win.

Harmon again led the Illineks with eight kills. Sophomore Jamie Blue recorded the team’s only block, and also added a team-high three digs and three aces. Wong had another great performance setting up, leading Uni with 23 assists.

The Illineks play two matches this week. After a home contest today against Arthur Okaw Christian, they will look to continue their in-conference success when they visit perennial powerhouse Decatur Lutheran on Friday.