Recently in Track and Field Category

Waubonsie Valley's Shakeia Pinnick qualified for the state meet in four events on Friday at the Waubonsie Sectional, including a sectional title in the 300 hurdles.

...Pinnick qualified for the state meet in four events: the 100 and 300-meter hurdles, 800 run and 200 dash.

''But in the 300 hurdles I might have been a little angry, and that ended up OK since that's my favorite race.''

And oh by the way.

Benet won the sectional team title with 88 points, followed by Batavia in second with 65 and Neuqua Valley in third with 60.

Fresh off his conference championship in the long jump at the CCIW outdoor meet, Neuqua Valley graduate and Cathage College sophomore Buzzy Brown will be in Naperville on Friday for the Dr. Keeler Invitational.

Brown won his conference title with a leap of 23-feet, four inches at North Park University in Chicago. The Red Men placed third.

The Keeler Invitational begins at 3 p.m. at North Central College's Bendetti-Wherli Stadium.

Neuqua Valley senior Chris Derrick shattered the national record for a high school only 5K race on Saturday at the 41st annual Arcadia Invitational, a prestigious track and field meet in California.

Derrick finished with a blistering 60-second last lap with the capacity crowd on its feet screaming to pass Illinois legend Craig Virgin on the all time list. Derrick took nearly 30 seconds off the the previous national record for a HS-only 5k -- 14:24.89 by Ryan Deak of Smoky Hill Aurora CO at Mt. SAC in 2004.

There is a seven-minute video at dyestat.com that shows highlights of the race.

Naperville Central's Evan Thayer won the mile and helped the Redhawks win the 3,200-meter relay on Saturday at the John Bell Invitational while recovering from a sinus infection the Sun-Times reported.

Thayer said he made his move with half a lap left and was running in about third place.

"I wanted to see what I had left and I went out slow," Thayer said. "I felt pretty tired but I wanted to work my way up and work through it. [Usually] you find that with 200 meters to go you're in a good position to race someone."