Staunton’s Lydia Roller (middle) leads the pack early in the 3,200 meters at the Class 2A girls track state finals on May 18 at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Roller capped her sophomore prep season with a fourth-place finish in the 3,200 and a second-place run in the 1,600 at state with a time of 5:11.80. Roller’s next competitive event came Thursday at the Festival of Miles with an invitation-only field for the 1,600 meters at Saint Louis U High.

Roller left the state meet at Charleston with hopes of running a sub-five minutes — “that’s my only goal,” she said — at the Festival of Miles and she did that for the first time in her career. Roller ran the 1,600 in 4 minutes, 59.60 seconds to place 10th in an elite field of 16 high school girls distance runners that had 10 break five minutes. Samantha Schadler, a Duke recruit and Arizona state champion from Rio Rico High School, won in 4:48.33.


Edwardsville’s Abby Korak was 14th in 5:02.47 after placing eighth in the Class 3A state meet in 5:05.46 in Charleston.