Lake County Invite
DEERFIELD SURPRISES WITH THIRD PLACE FINISH AT LAKE COUNTY INVITE, JOSH PUYEAR EARNS ALL-COUNTY IN EIGHTH PLACE
Fifteen cross country teams descended upon Waukegan SportsPark to see who was the best in Lake County. While Deerfield was slated to finish somewhere around sixth or eighth, they surpassed expectations with a third place finish.
Junior Josh Puyear earned All-County honors by placing eighth in 15:49 on the 5-kilometer course. Behind Puyear, Deerfield managed to place seven runners inside the top 35. Sophomore Cole Bernstein (17th, 16:16) and senior Ben Kraemer (18th, 16:18) finished right near each other near the front of the race for the second race in a row. Junior Ben Zamler (24th, 16:30) had a great race moving up to the fourth spot after finishing in the 6th spot in the last race. The final scorer was sophomore Ryan Bernstein (26, 16:33). Even the 6th and 7th runners Alex Luo (28th 16:35) and Lucas Moskovitz (24th, 16:45) finished right behind, pushing many top five scorers from other teams backwards. Moskovitz’s time of 16:45 is even faster than his time last week despite the longer distance and more difficult course.
For Deerfield fans, the Open race was fun to watch before it even began. Deerfield had 60 runners entered, which was by far the most of any team, despite being a school of only 1600 going up against schools two or three times larger. The string of Deerfield runners extended 50 feet behind the starting line.
Deerfield takes a lot of pride in Open and JV events because they test the work ethic of the less talented athletes, and Deerfield prides itself on a culture of a Varsity work ethic regardless of ability. And the Deerfield depth was on full display. Barrington, a very established and highly ranked program, dominated the race with a perfect score, but Deerfield finished in an easy second, closer to Barrington than to third place. The seniors led the way with standout performances from Grant Fisher (8th, 17:31), Joe Ariano (11th, 17:56), Elai Spector (13th, 17:57), and Micah Plofsky (14th, 17:57).
And notably, this was the first three-mile race for freshmen and newcomers. Three miles is a long way, but all 70 Deerfield runners who started the race finished it, including 22 freshmen. Just finishing a three-mile race is step one before focusing on finishing it faster.
This weekend the Warriors take on some of the state’s best at the Hornet-Red Devil Invite in Hinsdale.
