Niles North at Deerfield
DEERFIELD BEGINS CSL NORTH SEASON 1-0 WITH PERFECT SCORE VICTORY VS NILES NORTH
It was one of the most unusual meets in team history, but the DFDC attacked it head on. The Covid-19 season has brought a lot of changes, such as spectator-less meets, a cap of 50 runners per race, and the downsizing of CSL North meets from quads to duals. Fewer runners and no spectators means almost no noise. Add to that Niles North’s requirement that the two teams must run at separate times and individuals must start 10 seconds apart. All signs point to decreased motivation and slower times with this format, but that’s not what happened.
Senior Josh Puyear was the first starter for Deerfield and never looked back. He clocked his fastest time in a Deerfield uniform with 15:12, which is 19 seconds faster than he ran on the same course a few days earlier with competition. Juniors Cole Bernstein and Lucas Moskovitz started in the fourth and fifth positions but both ran big PRs of 15:32 and 15:37 placing second and third for Deerfield.
The middle of Deerfield's varsity group impressed as well. Junior Jonah Satyr dipped under 17 minutes for the first time clocking 16:55. Senior Brendan Beamer broke the 18 minute barrier for the first time in 17:56. Junior Evan Morris (17:05) and senior Asher Kriegel (17:10) each took half a minute off their PRs.
Deerfield proved too much for Niles North and won with a perfect score of 15-50, which results from putting all seven scoring runners in front of the other teams top runner. Deerfield, the favorites to repeat as CSL North champions, now starts the season with a 1-0 conference record with Vernon Hills up next on Tuesday.
Deerfield looked equally dominant on the frosh/soph level. Starting in the second position, sophomore Lucas Goldenberg cross the two-mile finish line first in 11:06 for the win. Sophomore Brandon Barber, freshman Dylan Cohen, and sophomore TJ Mangurten finished 2-3-4 all under 12 minutes. Freshman Dane Brown ran 12:14 for fifth place to solidify a perfect 15 points for Deerfield. Deerfield put 14 runners in front of Niles North’s first finisher for a perfect 15-50 score just like varsity.
Many Deerfield runners ran new personal bests in the frosh/soph race including Ian Trusky whose 14:37 was a minute and 31 seconds faster than he ran four days prior, and Matt Solovy whose 19:05 was a whole three minutes and 57 seconds faster than he ran earlier in the week.
Next, the Warriors host Barrington, Highland Park, and Mundelein in a quad meet at home. Barrington might be the best team Deerfield gets to face this season, so this meet should be exciting. Then Deerfield heads to Vernon Hills on Tuesday for their second CSL North dual meet.
