Derrick, friends team up for win
Neuqua Valley has an excellent boys track team.
It was evident Saturday at the Hinsdale Relays in Darien. The nature of the meet places a premium on the team aspect over the individual, even combining all four classes for one relay.
"It's always fun to compete with your teammates as opposed to against them in a race," said Wildcats senior Chris Derrick.
And it's always fun to watch Derrick's fluid, long-legged stride eat up the track.
Running anchor on the Wildcats' 6,400-meter relay, Derrick's time of 4 minutes, 10.4 seconds over 1,600 meters would stand as a personal best in a regular meet.
Relay teammates Danny Pawola, Aaron Beattie and Jim Riddle each went no worse than 4:32 as Neuqua Valley set one of six new meet records with a time of 17:35.9.
"I'm not really much of a miler, I'm more of a long-distance guy," the Stanford-bound Derrick said. "I've never done a lot of faster stuff, like toward mile pace. It felt good to be able to turn it over quick. I was pleasantly surprised."
Neuqua won eight varsity events to win the 10-team meet with 136 points. Lyons Twp. followed with 118, then Lane Tech (83) and Hinsdale South (79).
Along with the 6,400-meter relay, the Wildcats set new meet records in the 300 hurdles and the all-class 1,600 relay.
Chris Youngstrom, Brian Griffith, Cale Brown and Marshall Stewart each contributed to three different winning events.
"Today was actually very nice, just for our guys coming together, putting some nice efforts together and showing what they can accomplish," said Neuqua coach Mike Kennedy.
Hinsdale South checked in with two new meet records, in the distance medley of Brandon Hummer, Dan Herber, Maxx Rodrigues and Brian Denk; and in high jump, where Eric Travis, Ben Adelphia and Norman Frazier leaped a combined vertical 18 feet.
The amazing Frazier, a state qualifier as a junior, matched his personal best of 6 feet, 2 inches, nailing the top height of the afternoon on his third and final try.
That alone is not amazing. It is considering Frazier stands 5-6 in his track spikes.
"You don't have to be the tallest guy to high jump, the strongest guy, the fastest guy," he said. "Be anybody you want -- just keep it in mind, motivation. It's all motivation."