Hornet-Red Devil Invite
RESULTS
VARSITY: TEAM | INDIVIDUAL
SOPHOMORE: TEAM | INDIVIDUAL
FRESHMEN: TEAM | INDIVIDUAL
SOPHOMORES WIN STACKED HORNET-RED DEVIL INVITE OVER POWERHOUSE PROGRAMS! VARSITY FINISHES SOLID 10TH PLACE
The Hornet-Red Devil Invite at Katherine Legge Park in Hinsdale is always chock-full of top ranked cross country teams. This year was no different. But Deerfield kept up with the big dogs better than ever.
Despite being among the top runners on the team, Deerfield’s sophomores ran down in the sophomore race. Varsity had to compete without them, which moved several juniors and seniors into high-pressure scoring positions.
Despite the short-handed Varsity lineup, Deerfield finished 10th. That ties the highest finish ever in this meet since Deerfield started attending in 2011. And eight of the nine teams that beat Deerfield are ranked in the top 25 in Illinois in at least one of the two major media polls. Senior Ben Kraemer had perhaps the best race of his career so far completing the challenging course in 15:53 for 21st place. Senior Jason Dahlberg (78th, 17:01) and junior Jonah Kaplan (98th, 17:21) stepped up into the top five to solidify Deerfield’s impressive team performance.
In the sophomore race, Deerfield made history. Teams like Neuqua Valley, Hinsdale Central, New Trier, Wheaton-Warrenville South, Palatine, Naperville Central, and Naperville North are synonymous with cross country success year in and year out. In the last decade, 14 of the 30 state trophies for finishing in the top-three at the IHSA state championships went to these teams. But in the sophomore race on Saturday, Deerfield stood above them all. Led by Cole Bernstein’s third place finish, Deerfield topped the field with 69 points over Neuqua Valley’s 104 for second and New Trier’s 123 for third. One key New Trier sophomore was absent because he was in the Varsity race, but even if he had won the sophomore race, New Trier would only jump Neuqua Valley for second and Deerfield would remain on top. Behind Cole, all five scorers earned top 25 medals: Ryan Bernstein (10th, 16:37), Alex Luo (16th, 16:57), Lucas Moskovitz (17th, 17:00), and Eric Lakemaker (23rd, 17:44). Seeing Deerfield win a race at Hornet-Red Devil was unexpected and turned heads. But whether this group will earn similar success on the Varsity level in the future is still unknown.
Finally, the freshmen ran a 1.93 mile race and showed how quickly consistent training actually makes you improve. If you convert their times to a two mile distance, every single freshman set a new personal best, improving on their last two mile race on August 29. In fact, the average margin of improvement was over 60 seconds! The freshmen squad finished 14th out of 16 teams, so there is a lot of work still to be done. But with this kind of improvement in only nine days, the sky is the limit.
