Wheeling Invite
RESULTS: VARSITY | JUNIOR VARSITY | FROSH/SOPH
DEERFIELD EARNS THIRD PLACE TROPHY AT WHEELING INVITE WITH FOUR INDIVIDUAL MEDALISTS
The late fall weather arrived suddenly, but that’s when the real cross country runners come out.
The Wheeling Wildcat Invitational at Heritage Park saw temperatures in the 30s and 40s with strong winds to add a challenge to their already difficult and hilly course. Deerfield arrived ready for the elements and took third place out of fifteen teams.
Deerfield was without a complete lineup due to Josh Puyear’s illness. As a precautionary measure with major meets looming, he sat out. But the Warriors persisted behind some great performances. Senior Ben Kraemer (5th, 16:01) has been on a roll and continued with perhaps his best race of the season. He ran tough with the top runners from ranked teams and moved himself from around tenth to fifth in the final two miles. Kraemer looks ready to pop a great time once the opportunity arrives. Sophomore Cole Bernstein (24th, 16:36) finished solidly as the Warriors #2 runner.
The big story in this race was the effective pack running. Sophomores Lucas Moskovitz (29th, 16:41) and Ryan Bernstein (30th, 16:43) and junior Ben Zamler (31st, 16:43) ran almost the entire race together, pushing each other further and further towards the front. As the third through fifth runners, each person they passed was worth three points. Moskovitz and Bernstein earned top 30 medals while Zamler was just outside. A bit further back, Alex Luo (47th, 17:14), Eric Lakemaker (48th, 17:16), Jason Dahlberg (49th, 17:20), and Jonah Kaplan (52nd, 17:29) worked together nicely as well. This performance earned the team a third place trophy, and was a huge positive heading into the season’s most important meets
Deerfield finished in third place in the JV race too. Sophomores had the option of running the three-mile JV race or the shorter frosh/soph race, so the JV team was a mix of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Eight JV runners won top 30 ribbons as 24 of the top 30 runners were from Barrington, Hersey, or Deerfield. Deerfield’s ribbon winners were Grant Fisher (10th, 17:46), Elai Spector (11th, 17:50), Micah Plofsky (13th, 17:55), AJ Osborn (15th, 17:57), Jonah Satyr (20th, 18:06), Mac Cooley (22nd, 18:09), Joe Ariano (27th, 18:20), and Zack Greco (28th, 18:26). This was an amazing display of Deerfield’s depth. Barrington and Hersey are well-established programs, and Deerfield was up there with them.
The frosh/soph team was obviously short-handed since they lost most of their sophomores to the Varsity and JV races, but they hung tough. Freshman TJ Mangurten led the charge in 14:41 for 2.375 miles.
Wheeling marks the end of the invite schedule. The Warriors look ahead to the next four weeks which include the most important meets on the schedule: the CSL Championships and the IHSA State Series.
