The Uni High Booster Club hosted an awards dinner Sunday in Uni Gym to mark the end of the fall sports season. The event honored the success of this year's fall athletes representing boys and girls cross country, boys soccer, girls swimming, and girls volleyball. Check inside for more as Uni bids farewell to the fall season and gets ready for winter sports.

Led by subfreshman Shawn Lu's perfect record against eighth-grade competition and junior John Vaughen's winning performance against 11th-graders, six Uni players took home trophies Saturday from the Illinois State Scholastic All Grade Championships, an official U.S. Chess Federation event. Uni won team titles in the eighth-grade and combined high school levels.

Fine, says Chris Yoder: It was our varsity against their JV. It was more of a scrimmage than a real match. Their players were picked by their coach so we would play competitive tennis. But we won. Uni tennis beat the Urbana JV. It wasn't really anything to gloat about. Its significance comes in that it was Uni’s first team tennis match ever.

The annual rite of passage known as the Twin Cities Twosome was a great success Saturday morning, as hundreds of Uni students met the challenge of completing the 5K course at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana. Check inside for a photo recap.

More than 9,600 people participated in C-U's recent Illinois Marathon. Although no one at Uni braved all 26.2 miles of the full run, several upperclassmen did make it through the half marathon, which totaled a hefty 13.1 miles (that's more than four 5Ks!). Elaine Gu was one of them, and she looks back at that tiring but exhilarating day

As Brittany Scheid took her finish medal after running the half marathon at the April 11 Illinois Marathon, an unexpected flood of emotion washed over her when she realized that this was it. She had a great time, she was happy it was all over, yet it was bittersweet.

Having anticipated the Illinois Marathon since November, Hadley Hauser was disappointed to find out earlier this month that a recurring lower back problem would prevent her from running in the half-marathon portion of the April 11 event. Instead she walked the 13.1 miles — with enlightening results.

The Uni squad of Greg Atherton, Danny Ge, Richard Wang, and John Vaughen won the K-12 Unrated national title Sunday at the United States Chess Federation's SuperNationals IV Scholastic Chess Championships. The tournament took place Friday to Sunday in Nashville. Individually, Atherton placed first, Ge second, Wang fifth.

Having won the IHSA state title in February, nine players from the Uni chess team will head off to the three-day SuperNationals tournament in Nashville that will begin Friday. Team captain Gordon Ruan gives us a preview of the nation's biggest scholastic chess event of the year.

On March 21 and 22, senior Gordon Ruan played in the Illinois Chess Association's Denker Qualifier, from which one player would be selected to represent Illinois in the Denker Tournament of High School Champions the first week of August in Indianapolis. Check inside to see how Ruan fared.

Today is nirvana for college basketball fans: the first full day of the NCAA Division I men's tournament. In the buildup to March Madness, even people normally immune to hoops fill out the obligatory bracket (or two or three). Chris Yoder is no casual fan, but even he admits that bracketology isn't a science. Still, that doesn't stop him from trying.

While many of their peers were playing basketball or running indoor track this winter, freshmen Abigail Radnitzer and Chris Nguyen and subfreshman James Boyle were playing ice hockey at the U of I Ice Arena and other rinks in the Midwest. Revathi Maturi spoke to the Uni trio about their interest in the sport.

Jonathan Kuck, a 2007 Uni grad, continues to make a name for himself in the world of speedskating. The Gargoyle profiled him in 2005 when he was a sophomore. Check inside to read about his latest accomplishments, then take a trip back in time courtesy of the Gargoyle archives and meet Jonathan as a Uni underclassman.

Uni went undefeated in the seven-round IHSA state tournament, which began Friday and ended today. Coached by Chris Merli, Uni left no doubt that it was the best team in the 120-school competition, getting outstanding play on all eight boards and meeting every challenge thrown its way. The victory gives Uni its seventh state chess title, more than any other Illinois school.

Senior Gordon Ruan, one of the top chess players in the state, will lead Uni into this weekend's IHSA state tournament. Ruan, also a Gargoyle editor, provides a first-person preview of the action as the Illineks try for a top 10 finish. Last year they placed 11th overall and first among small schools.