Peter Neill's high school running career at West Point Grey Academy has come to an end, but with his sights set on competing in U SPORTS for the Gaels come the fall, he has much to look forward to!
I caught up with Neill about his start in running, his journey to Queen's University and what the future holds.
Personal Bests
1500m: 4:12
2000m Steeplechase: 6:25
3k: 8:51
Career Accolades
2022 BC High School XC Championships 5th Place
2022 Sea to Sky XC Zone Championships 1st Place
2022 Steilacoom XC Invitational 1st Place
2023 BC High School T&F Championships 3000m 9th Place
2023 BC High School T&F Championships 5th Place
Neill has been involved in sports from a young age and that is how he found his path to running.
"I went to an extremely small elementary school, so I played every sport and found myself doing the best at cross country."
Yet it was only during his high school years that he found a passion for competitive running and decided to kick it up a notch.
"I've run in some capacity since Grade 8, but I would consider myself to have really started training hard and consistently after the winter of Grade 11. When I was younger I was inconsistent. I would train for three months, then take three months off and my base would disappear. However, after track season in Grade 11, when I looked back on my performances at the BC High School Championships and the mileage I'd been running, I started to realize that I was doing pretty well for the amount I was training and with more consistent training I could probably make a run at the post secondary level."
This realization turned into a reality and Neill will be headed to Queen's University this upcoming fall, where he will be competing in the Ontario University Athletics Conference (OUA) within U SPORTS, while also studying engineering.
"This realization at the end of Grade 11 is what initially sparked my interest in running after high school. Looking at the role that running played in my life I found it hard to imagine myself in an engineering program without running playing a role in balancing my life at school. Not to mention, for me Queen's has the right balance of focus on school and training and I found the coaches understood that and that's what ultimately sold me."
With Neill's high school career now behind him, which in his final year included both a 5th and 9th place finish at the BC High School Track and Field Championships, he is looking forward to soaking up the experience of being a collegiate athlete and seeing where it takes him.
"I don't really have any set in stone time goals, but mainly I'd like to focus on adjusting to running higher mileage and training more frequently while still staying healthy. An ideal season for me would be one where I make a difference on the team in some capacity but I'm confident that will come with time."
With that Neill shared some final words of advice from his own experiences within the sport.
"Don't take training too seriously. You need to be able to continue to progress your training once you graduate high school, so if you go all out at a young age, there will be nowhere else to go later on. For me this is one of the reasons I'm so excited to run post-secondary, because I know I have far to go. For running 40k weeks, I'd like to think I've made it remarkably far and I'm confident that with the right progression my running will continue to improve."