It requires a pretty special track performance to relegate an 8:46 3200 or a 17-8 pole vault attempt to undercard status, but at roughly nine o’clock on Saturday evening, in the inaugural 5000 meter race at the 21st Arcadia Invitational, Chris Derrick (right) of Neuqua Valley IL delivered exactly that sort of effort. Earlier in the evening, Luke Puskedra of Judge Memorial UT and Dominic Channon of Nelson College, New Zealand, had waged a stirring eight-lap battle that saw Puskedra making a last-ditch move in the homestretch for the 8:46.40 victory, and left Channon reeling in the post-race paddock from his 8:48.00 effort. At the same time, Los Gatos California vaulter Nico Weiler had thrilled the crowd with a 17-4 pole vault clearance before making three solid attempts at 17-8. And spring-loaded leaper Will Claye of Mountain Pointe AZ was spanning—and then surpassing—50-feet in the triple jump sandpit along the backstretch grandstands. But when the boys 5k toed the line, all eyes turned to Derrick.

Derrick didn’t disappoint, tearing through lap after lap of controlled but purposeful running with a demeanor matching the cool evening air that arrived after a searing afternoon heat. The race he authored—without benefit of pacers or professional-level competition—was truly one for the ages. Drawing confidence from an internal reserve of winter workouts which suggested a 4:30 pace was possible, and inspiration from a crowd driven to a frenzy by meet announcer David Mitchell, the NTN champion and Foot Locker runner-up exceeded his own lofty expectations by stopping the clock at 13:55.96.

“With my coach and my workouts,” he said afterwards, “I thought I could do 4:30s. I tried to go out and do that. I felt like in the beginning it was a little slow, and I thought I was heading for a 14:14…14:20. I wasn’t feeling that great, but with the crowd, and everyone cheering me on, it just picked me up. They carried me through. It was pretty tough those last few laps.”

Derrick’s run was the fastest high school-only 5k in US prep history, by a wide margin (next best is 14:24.89 by Ryan Deak CO at Mt. SAC in 2004). It left him #6 all-time in the prep 5k, in the company of names like Rupp, Lindgren, Ritzenhein, Prefontaine and Zishka. It surpassed the 13:58.2 mark of fellow Illinois harrier Craig Virgin, answering pundits who wondered if the Virgin-like marks Derrick put up during cross country season truly compared with Virgin’s historic efforts. He closed in 8:49 for the final eight laps, a mind-boggling achievement as he pressed on alone through the strung out traffic of lapped runners, some of them for the second time.

When he crossed the line and the time began to register, even Derrick seemed astounded.

“It still hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said later. “It’s…pretty special.”

As impressive as the Stanford-bound senior’s achievement was, there were multiple performances of nearly equal note.

Puskedra defends his title against New Zealand’s best

Like many in the US-high school track community, Arcadia's defending 3200 champ Luke Puskedra didn’t know a great deal about Dominic Channon as he prepared to race the New Zealander in this year's 3200. But when he heard Channon had dropped an 8:09 3k in February, that got his attention.

“When I saw that he was an 8:09 guy,” Puskedra admitted, “that kind of made me swallow my tongue for a minute, thinking about it.”

If Channon’s track credentials made Puskedra catch his breath, the news that expected challenger German Fernandez of Riverbank CA had withdrawn from the race at the last minute made the lanky senior’s heart sink.

“I’m zero-for-two against him, so it was kind of a shame. You know it’s going to be a fast race when he’s in it. And here in California, you know the energy would have been moving.”

Even without the anticipated Fernandez showdown, the 3200 turned into a classic. The early pace was a bit sluggish and left the pack bunched through an 800 at 2:15, but then Puskedra shot to the lead and dragged Channon with him, passing 1600 in 4:28 and 2k in 5:34.3. At the bell, Channon surged wide and assumed the fore (left), initiating a sizzling 61-second final lap of multiple lead changes and a last ditch effort in the homestretch by Puskedra that sealed his 8:46.40 win. Channon was on his heels at 8:48.00, thoroughly depleted by the effort.

“I just tried to keep form and break him down,” Puskedra said. “With the crowd and everything, it was definitely great.”

While the hoped-for 3200 matchup failed to materialize in its entirety, every member of the lauded 800 field toed the line, and waged a tight battle that was less about jaw-dropping times and more about final position. Pre-race favorite and US#1 (1:49.41) Blake Shaw of Texas prevailed in 1:51.19, leading nearly wire-to-wire as he split 55.3 at 400 and held off a furious homestretch charge from Desert Vista AZ star John Kline.

“I’m a little disappointed with my time,” Shaw said as he caught his breath afterwards, “but happy that I was able to pull out the victory.”

Kline’s runner-up 1:51.33 topped fellow Arizonan John Eichberger (fourth in 1:51.75), and reversed an earlier loss to the Catalina Magnet senior at the late March Chandler Invitational. The two rivals had been aiming for the Arizona state record of 1:51.46 at that Chandler meet, and though they narrowly missed it there, Kline claimed it at Arcadia on the strength of his gutsy stretch run.

He and Eichberger weren’t the only prominent Arizona natives making an impact.

Ambitious Arizonans make their mark

Kline’s Desert Vista AZ teammates took the afternoon’s first major baton battle, soaring to the 4x100 title with a 41.35 which left them US#4 and turned back California squad Rancho Cucamonga (41.41). While the mark left them just shy of another Arizona state record, it certainly established their speed cred in a section of the sport that tends to feature California and Texas teams at the top of the list.

“You always hear how California has the fastest teams,” Desert Vista anchor Luke Matthews said, “so we just wanted to come out here and represent for Arizona.”

Cedrique Smith (Agua Fria AZ sr), another standout from that Chandler meet, won his signature 110 meter hurdle event, outlasting two race callbacks and an extended meet delay to inch ahead off the final hurdle for a 14.25 victory over Devron Walker (Dominguez CA - 14.27).

“[The false starts] took all the adrenaline out,” Smith said afterwards, “but I had just had to come back and get ready to do my thing.”

The most impressive Arizonan of all might have been Mountain Pointe junior Will Claye (right), a jumps specialist who was upstaged at the Chandler Invite by Bryce Lamb’s super day, but seized the Arcadia runways for his own, recording a pair of memorable horizontal wins. He took the long jump first, in a wind-legal 24-01.25 (+1.3), then competed for attention with the late-evening distance duels and managed to divert some of the attention by reaching 50-06 in the triple jump, followed by a monster 51-07.50 (+0.0), which drew grandstand gasps and left him US#1 in all conditions by 7 inches.

More field event magic in the pole vault pit

While Claye was lighting up one runway, German exchange student Nico Weiler (Los Gatos CA) was setting fire to another. Elevating to heights the Arcadia meet has never witnessed, Weiler (left) set a pole vault meet record of 17-4 to take the title, and then made three tantalizingly-close attempts at 17-8.

“It felt great,” Weiler said about his series. “I’ve never jumped like that in my life. Everyone in the stadium helped out…it was amazing.”

Other impressive field event wins were turned in by Bryce Hall (Davis UT sr) in the shot put: 61-01.00, Nick Ross (Vista Murrieta CA jr) in the high jump: 6-10.00, and Dayshan Ragans (Foothill CA sr) in the discus: 193-06.

Night ends with baton battles

Somewhat lost in the excitement of the distance duels were several stellar performances woven throughout the rest of the program. In the heat of the afternoon, Charles White (Cherry Creek CO sr) came off a conservative early pace to record a US#2 4:13.60 mile victory over Patrick McGregor’s (Hoover AL sr ) 4:15.72 PR. Cathedral CA junior Randall Carroll blitzed a 10.49 100 meter win, then had Chris Owusu (Oaks Christian CA sr) surpass him in the 200, 21.41 to 21.44 (both marks were surpassed by Seeded heat winner Rodney Storrs’ 21.40). Long Beach Poly CA senior Joey Hughes, reliable relaymate to Byshon Nellum last year, established himself as Nellum’s one-lap successor with a big 400 PR of 46.97 to take that event, and Eric Surprenant (Lynbrook CA sr) came off the final barrier of the 300 hurdles with a lead, then held on for the 38.09 win there.

The night ended on the boy’s side with a pair of hotly contested relays. Trabuco Hills CA won a torrid 10:12.77 DMR on the strength of anchor Riley Sullivan, who’d already run 8:56.09 in the 3200 earlier in the evening. And then, in the closing act of the weekend, Dominguez CA scorched a US#1 3:12.13 4x400 win over Crespi CA’s 3:14.24, bringing an appropriate close to a day that featured close races and eye-popping marks up and down the schedule.