Neuqua Valley Workout

Flotrack's David Williams recently attended a practice at Neuqua Valley high school in Naperville, IL. Neuqua Valley has had a long tradition of excellence and most recently won the Illinois state Championship in 2007. They capped off their season with a win at Nike Team Nationals in December. Here several members of the team prepare for their upcoming Sectional races. Leading the group is Chris Derrick who ran 13:55 in May at the Arcadia Invitational. This was the fastest Junior time ever run in high school only competition. That run put Chris in some pretty elite company as the last two juniors to run under 14 minutes were Olympic hopeful Galen Rupp and Marathon trials runner-up Dathan Ritzenhein. Chris is followed closely by Danny Pawola, Jim Riddle, and Aaron Beattie. Both Pawola and Riddle have run 9:11 for 3200m, and the youngster Beattie has run 9:24 as a Sophomore. Click Here to see Chris' amazing 5k