Nicole Benson and Chris Derrick took to the track Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston for the historical elite boys and girls high school mile races at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games.  ** Chris Derrick finishes ninth in boys race in 4:14.841 Luke Puskedra Ogden, UT 4:08.772 Colby Lowe Southlake, TX 4:08.993 Kyle Merber Dix Hills, NY 4:12.424 Charles White Colorado 4:13.335 Cory Leslie Sansusky, OH 4:13.766 Christopher Brown Southlake, TX 4:14.007 Michael Fout LaPorte, IN 4:14.708 Joseph Franklin Tallahassee, FL 4:14.829 Christopher Derrick Naperville, IN 4:14.8410 Sintayehu Taye Ashburnham, MA 4:15.0311 Mac Fleet University City, CA 4:28.19** Nicole Benson places ninth in girls race in 5:02.29 1 Jillian Smith                Manahawkin, NJ         4:48.83   2 Jessica Parry                   London, ONT, CAN       4:53.05  3 Mary Kate Champagne          Plattsburgh, NY        4:55.57  4 Keely Maguire                Georgetown, MA         4:56.02  5 Bridget Dahlberg             Newton South, MA       4:58.67  6 Sarah McCurdy                Bay Shore, NY          4:58.83  7 Brianna Welch                Glen Head, NY          5:00.61  8 Kristin Reese                Holmes, NY             5:00.85  9 Nicole Benson                Peoria, IL             5:02.2910 Tori Pennings                Warwick,NY             5:02.4311 Caitlin Lane                 Greenwich, NY          5:06.79

Girls Class AA State Cross Country champion Nicole Benson (Sr., Limestone) accepted an invitation to compete in the Girls' Junior Invitational Mile at the Boston Indoor Games on January 26, 2008.  Benson also placed second last year in the AA 1600m run, finishing behind middle-distance star Ashley Verplank.

 Chris Derrick has high hopes for his 2008 track season(Photo by Scott Bush)Since the beginning of August, Chris Derrick (IL) has been on a tear, winning race after race, honor after honor, and along the way leading his team to state and national championships.  On Tuesday, Chris won the Gatorade National Cross Country Runner of the Year award.  We caught up with Chris Tuesday night to get his thoughts on receiving such a fantastic honor and a few other hot topics.

 Chris Derrick (IL): The Gatorade National Boys Cross Country ROYThe Gatorade Player of the Year program announced Tuesday morning that Chris Derrick is the 2007-2008 National Gatorade Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year.  Chris ran lights out all season long, picking up nine course records, Illinois state team and individual titles, NTN team and individual titles and a second place finish at Foot Locker Nationals.  Congratulations Chris!

While the official start to the Illinois indoor track and field season is still a few weeks away, a handful of athletes got started early with top performances this past weekend.  Shakeia Pinnick (Waubonsie Valley), Stephanie Brown (Tri-Valley) and Kendrick McRath (Cahokia) were the weekend's top performers.

Neuqua Valley's Chris Derrick and Sandburg's Kristin Sutherland were announced as the Gatorade Cross Country Players of the Year for Illinois today.  In it's first year of announcing Gatorade Cross Country POY's, Gatorade is excited to name the Illinois winners.  Both Derrick and Sutherland go into the final selection for National Cross Country Player of the Year.  The boys POY will be announced next Tuesday, while the girls will be announced a week later.  Congrats Chris and Kristin!

 The Boston Indoor Games officially announced their elite boys mile field today for their meet on January 26 at the Reggie Lewis Center.  Chris Derrick (Neuqua Valley) is part of the field that includes four of the top five finishers at Nike Team Nationals and four of the top six national returnees in the event from last spring.Elite Boys Mile Field- Mike Fout (IN) - Foot Locker National champion- Charles White (CO) - 2007 Indoor National Mile champ- Luke Puskedra (UT) - Fifth place FLN finisher- Colby Lowe (TX) - Fourth place FLN finisher- Chris Derrick (IL) - Second place FLN finisher- Mac Fleet (CA) - Top junior returnee; 4:08.09c as soph.- Joseph Franklin (FL) - 4:07.36 1600m in 2007- Cory Leslie (OH) - 7th at USATF Juniors in 2007; 4:09.47c mile- C.J. Brown (TX) - FLN qualifier in 2007 as a junior- Sintayehu Taye (MA) - 2007 Indoor National Mile runner-up