Peoria Notre Dame "Richard Spring" Invitational
RESULTS: VARSITY | FROSH/SOPH
COLE BERNSTEIN AND FROSH/SOPH BEAT ALL 53 TEAMS AT RICHARD SPRING INVITE! VARSITY FINISHES RESPECTABLE 20TH
Fourteen DFDC runners traveled down to Peoria for the largest and most competitive cross country meet in Illinois other than the State Championships. Thirteen top 25 ranked teams including #1 through #6, plus the #5 ranked team from California loaded this field. Thunderstorm threats held off, and the resulting cool and cloudy conditions allowed for fast times.
Deerfield held their sophomores down to the frosh/soph level to allow for more junior and senior Top 7 contenders to make the trip. Without their best varsity lineup, Deerfield still placed 20th out of 63 teams in the varsity race. Junior Josh Puyear (34th, 15:14) got out to a blazing start with a 4:48 first mile. And while his pace dipped, Puyear held on nicely for a fast time of 15:14. Senior Ben Kraemer finished just outside of the Top 60 medalists in 15:43 for 68th place. Junior Jonah Kaplan ran a ten-second personal best to finish as the team’s #3 runner in 16:47.
The frosh/soph team knew they were stacked and had the potential for success at this meet, although they found out the day before that they weren’t the only team holding varsity-quality runners down to the frosh/soph level. Nonetheless, Deerfield got out in position to not only win, but to demolish the rest of the field. By the mile mark, Cole Bernstein had a decent lead on everyone in the field except his own teammate Alex Luo who was on his tail in second. Ryan Bernstein was in fourth place, and took over third place about a half mile later. Eric Lakemaker was squarely in the top 20 and Lucas Moskovitz was squarely in the top 50 and moving up. Cole Bernstein held on and won the race in 15:45 becoming the first Deerfield runner to ever win a race at this enormous meet! Ryan Bernstein and Luo fell back but held on to solid places in 11th and 19th, but Lakemaker held on for 16th while Moskovitz moved up to 40th to secure a big win for Deerfield! With 88 points, Deerfield topped second place Palatine with 144, third place Sandburg with 163, and fifty other teams. This is the first time Deerfield has won a race this meet as a team at any level. A truly impressive feat.
Beyond the top five scorers who all have varsity experience, the two true frosh/soph runners Jonah Satyr and Zach Garland had fantastic races. Satyr ran 17:28 for a 63-second personal best while Garland ran 17:49 for a 78-second personal best!
In addition to the great racing, the annual overnight Peoria trip was full of fun traditions like dressing up for dinner at Avantis and Monicals Pizza after the race. Even the three-hour bus rides were fun with a Ben Kraemer playlist that included “Shotgun” by George Ezra at least 30 times.
