Lakes Sunset Series Meet #2
DEERFIELD JV LINEUP WINS VARSITY TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP AT LAKES SUNSET SERIES MEET #2
One week after Deerfield sent a frosh/soph team to a varsity meet at Lakes and walked away with the team title, it was JV’s turn.
Deerfield’s JV team went up against five other school’s varsity teams in a flighted invitational. Each team entered nine runners into three flights, one flight for the bottom three runners, one for the next three, and then a championship flight for the top three runners. So each flight featured 18 total runners.
The first flight was for each teams’ 7th, 8th, and 9th runners. For Deerfield’s JV team this was juniors Jonah Satyr and Ethan Blacher, and senior Brendan Beamer. Satyr ran at the front with a runner from Lakes who ultimately got away from him in the final mile, but Satyr held on for second in 17:07. There was a gap back to third, which Blacher claimed with a big kick, finishing in PR of 17:23. Beamer ran a strong race for fifth place in 17:39. The 2-3-5 finish propelled Deerfield to an early lead after the first flight.
The second flight for each teams’ 4th, 5th, and 6th runners featured three Deerfield seniors: Zack Greco, Joe Healy, and Asher Kriegel. Healy led this group from the front with Greco and Kriegel several meters back. But after two miles, Greco caught up to Healy and took over the lead. Healy held on, and the pair finished first and second in 16:55 and 16:58 respectively. 16:58 was a PR for Healy and his first time under 17 minutes. Kriegel held on for fifth in 17:27. The 1-2-5 finish in flight two paired with the 2-3-5 finish in flight one created an almost insurmountable lead for Deerfield.
The championship flight featured each team’s best runners. For Deerfield this was senior AJ Osborn and juniors Evan Morris and David Fisher. The competition in this flight was tough. The other teams featured the top runners at their entire school. For the first time in six races at Lakes, no Deerfield runners were near the lead. Morris was running in 4th or 5th place for most of the race with Fisher and Osborn further around 10th. Osborn worked his way up late in the race and made a huge move in the final quarter mile to propel himself all the way to third place in 16:36. Morris and Fisher finished in a 7th and 9th place.
Deerfield won the meet championship with 37 points with over the 64 points scored by second place Marengo. This victory with Deerfield’s “second” team demonstrates Deerfield’s depth and the fact that the varsity-attitude extends well-beyond the top runners, which is something that gives the team a ton of pride. The health of the program is very strong.
