Last week we caught up with Stanford's Chris Derrick, the distance runner out of Neuqua Valley with Olympic ambitions. We mentioned the Cardinal's rich and varied athletic history, which includes John McEnroe, Tiger Woods and at least one national championship in 33 consecutive years.

But even Stanford isn't immune to the global financial crisis, as Mark Schlabach explains in a fascinating piece for ESPN.com. Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby told Schlabach that he will have to slash $7 million from his department over the next two and a half years. Bowlsby couldn't guarantee that sports won't be cut. Schlabach reports:

Across the country, Stanford isn't alone in its financial difficulties. Many athletic departments are struggling to balance their financial books after receiving less funding from state legislatures and fewer donations from alumni and boosters.

Stanford's economic woes are directly tied to the loss in value of its endowments, which are used to cover scholarship funding and other operating costs. In 2008, the Cardinal's athletic endowment was worth about $520 million. But the endowment lost about 20 to 30 percent of its value when the financial markets went south, dropping its current value to about $410 million. The value of the school's general endowment fell from $17.2 billion in 2008 to about $12 billion this fiscal year.

-Notre Dame was selected No. 1 in this week's USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine men's college hockey poll. Teddy Ruth, a Naperville local, and The Fighting Irish will be in the area Jan. 2-3 for a tournament at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.

-North Central College track and field will host a clinic for coaches and athletes (age 12 and up) on Sunday, Dec. 14 at Merner Fieldhouse. For more information, call Mahesh Narayanan at 630-637-5525 or e-mail mahesh@noctrl.edu.

-Strictly Shooting Co. will hold a basketball camp for boys and girls grades four through eight on Dec. 22-23 and Dec. 29-30 at Kennedy Junior High School in Naperville. For more information, call 630-355-0622 or visit strictlyshootinghoops.com.

-Prepvolleyball.com ranks Benet 16th, Naperville Central 43rd and Naperville North 70th in its Dec. 4 edition of the top 100 national rankings. All three teams finished its seasons last month. Phil Brozynski has an alumni update here.

Naperville North senior Kyle Gibson was the subject of a Q&A with Dyestat.com on Tuesday and I put the quotes around chats in the headline because it seems clear from the transcript that this was an e-mail exchange. Either that or the author doesn't believe in spellcheck.

Gibson dished on his experience of competing at last year's Class AAA cross country state meet while battling bronchitis, stated that North won't be satisfied with anything less than a state championship and listed Oklahoma State, Portland and Iona as his possible college destinations.

Gibson, who placed third in the 3,200 meters this spring at the state track meet, also took a playful shot in at teammate David McWilliams.

David McWilliams is also a really good runner having a great summer that not many people know too much because he plays baseball in the spring(he's an old man though so his hip needs to hold up).

Waubonsie Valley senior Shakeia Pinnick won five medals, including two national championships, last week at the AAU Junior Olympics. The track and field star also wrote a diary about her experience for Dyestat.com.

Pinnick writes about her race strategies, takes the readers through each event of her championship in the heptathlon, explains how she competed in the 800-meters final and the 400-meter hurdles within 90 minutes and tells us that the wind conditions on the final day contributed to a disappointing time in the 400-meters final.

The final was crazy with the wind swirling and changing constantly. When we came off the last curve, we ran right into a headwind. It was not good for us smaller athletes.

For the second year in a row, Benet junior McKinzie Schulz has won national title at the AAU Junior Olympics with her victory on Wednesday in the Intermediate Girls 2,000-meter steeplechase.

Her time of 7:21.54 had Schulz way out in front. The second-place finisher clocked in at 7:34.08. If Schulz had competed in the Young Women division, she would have won that race, too. By four seconds.

Schulz ran faster and placed second in steeplechase at the USATF Junior Olympics on June 24, when she crossed in would-have been a national record 7:12.77 if there had been one-less runner.

In her last event of the week at the AAU Junior Olympics, Waubonsie Valley senior Shakeia Pinnick ran a 56.32 to place sixth in the Young Women's 400-meter dash. Out of five events, it was the only one Pinnick didn't place fifth or higher.

Pinnick won two national championships, finishing with 4,883 points in the heptathlon on June 27 and in a personal-best 2:12.37 to win the 800 meters on Wednesday less than two hours before placing second in the 400 in a personal-best 58.98.

Pinnick won two events (200, 800) in the heptathlon and was second in two more (long jump, 100 hurdles). Earlier this summer, Pinnick went over 5,000 points to win the heptathlon at the Illinois Top Prep Times Multi Event Championships.

On Thursday, Pinnick placed fifth in the 100 hurdles in 14.44. Yes, it was a personal best, and her 400 prelim time of 54.88 on Friday was also a lifetime fastest (I tire of typing personal best).

Going way out on a limb here, but we thinks Shakeia Pinnick just might have a future with this track thing.

Benet junior McKinzie Schulz finished second on Tuesday in the girls intermediate 2,000-meter Steeplechase at the USATF Junior Olympics in Omaha, Neb.

Her time of 7:12.77 is faster than the old meet record. The only problem for Schulz was that Colorado runner Eleanor Fulton set a national record of 6:56.97 to win the race.

Of course, success in the steeplechase is nothing new for Schulz.

Neuqua Valley graduate Chris Derrick missed the Nike Outdoor Nationals just as he missed the IHSA Class AA state finals because of illness, but Dyestat.com news editor Steve Underwood posted an article that wonders what would have happened if the Stanford-bound Derrick did run at NON.

Underwood posits the scenario of Derrick facing California star German Fernandez and Indiana standout Mike Fout in the 5,000 meters.

The easy thing to wonder is what if Derrick had made it to the line for the NON 2-mile vs. Fernandez, instead of watching from the sidelines as DyeStat's newest reporter? Could a healthy Derrick - with that 13:55 5k at Arcadia and what seemed like a routine 8:48 3200 not long after - have stayed with German in Greensboro?

After further inspection of the results of the Nike Outdoor Nationals, Waubonsie Valley's Sean Wiggan placed 12th in the 800-meter run on Saturday.

Wiggan ran a 1:52.84 and finished ahead of Michigan state champion Tommy Brinn, who won the 800 at the Midwest Distance Gala in Lisle a week earlier.

The is what the on-the-mend Chris Derrick wrote about the 800 in one of his observations for Dyestat.com on Saturday.

The 800 is one of the most exciting races. In each final, the favorite pounced on the field at 400m and appeared to have the victory in hand, only to have the grueling long sprint to the line almost eat them up. The variety of strategies that can work in the 800 and the propensity for a fast pace to throw a large piano on the back of an early leader in the final straight make the homestretch of an 800 an unpredictable and thrilling event.

Benet sophomore McKinzie Schulz finished 16th in the women's 800-meter dash on Saturday at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C.

Schulz finished in 2 minutes, 14.89 seconds. Jillian Smith of New Jersey won the race in 2:05.24. Schulz was scheduled to run the 2,000-meter steeplechase, but the Naperville native did not start that race.

Neuqua Valley graduate Chris Derrick would be running at the Nike Outdoor Nationals if not for his recent illness, but he is in Greensboro, N.C., this weekend working as a correspondent for Dyestat.com.

His coverage of the meet -- Derrick's Dispatches -- can be read here.

This was a great line from his Friday post about German Fernandez breaking the national two-mile record.

German is the most incredibly even pacer (even while racing guys) that I have ever seen or heard of. Forget testing for drugs, test for a freaking computer chip.

Hopefully, Chris can catch up with Benet sophomore McKinzie Schulz, who is slated to run the 2,000-meter steeplechase at 10:45 a.m. and the 800 at 4:55 p.m. today. Last summer, Schulz won the 2,000-meter steeplechase at AAU Nationals and won the 1,500 at the USATF Nationals.