Lake Park Invite
DFDC TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE EVER-FAST LAKE PARK COURSE WITH MANY PERSONAL BESTS
With the varsity and frosh/soph teams running races on the State Meet course in Peoria, Deerfield’s JV squads had a chance to compete against some very strong teams from around the northwest suburbs. This is one of the faster courses in the area, with three one-mile loops around the undulating fields of Lake Park’s athletic fields, and even finishing on their track.
The day started off with the open junior/senior race, where Deerfield had just four runners competing. After a fast start by Adam Fenster and Jack Pinsky in the first mile, junior Avi Wolkenberg had a very strong middle mile. His even splitting was rewarded with a 46-second season best, narrowly missing his PR from last year.
The varsity race was highlighted by 3A 12th ranked Wheaton-Warrenville South and 15th ranked St. Charles East, as well as a depth of teams on the edge of the top-25, making for some very stiff competition especially given that the typical varsity squad was in Peoria for the weekend. Despite how fast the front of the race started, Deerfield’s top group of Jack Gordon, Carson Amstutz, and Drew Spiegel did not get over-excited and hit the mile split exactly to plan in 5:46. Gordon opened up a gap in the second mile, splitting 11:56 and holding on to be the DFDC’s fastest runner on the day, finishing in a 15-second season best of 17:54. Amstutz, better known as a 400m runner in track season, was not far behind – once he stepped foot on the track with 300 meters to go, it was trouble for the runners in front of him. He unleashed a furious kick to finally break the 18-minute barrier by the narrowest of margins: 17:59.9.
Deerfield’s top-5 was rounded out by Nadav Basa, Drew Spiegel, and Ethan Schott, with Basa and Schott setting all-time PR’s and Spiegel with a new season best. The best performance of the day on the varsity level went to junior Fisher Houston, who started very quickly and held on for a massive 42-second PR. Deerfield finished 16th of 21 teams, which was impressive given that they were missing their top ten or so runners from this race. For reference, CSL rivals New Trier and Niles North also had their varsity running in Peoria, so they both had JV squads competing at Lake Park as well. They finished 11th and 21st respectively. Given that New Trier is probably the deepest team in the entire state and is in the hunt for the 3A state title, finishing this close behind was not only impressive, but indicative of the depth that has been growing amongst the DFDC in recent years.
The final race of the day was the frosh/soph, and by this point the heat and humidity had set in, about 85 degrees at race time. The frosh/soph squad was led by speed group sophomores Dawid Turos, Asher Siegel, and Nathan Wolski. The trio started fast, around 5:40 at the mile, and Turos pulled away in the second loop to finish an impressive 26th place in 11:32. This was his first race of the season, and only 7 seconds off of his personal best time from last year. Wolski and Siegel both broke the 12-minute barrier for the first time, with Siegel PR’ing by a massive 53 seconds. The freshman team continued their improvements, with 9 of 12 crossing the line with new personal bests. Nick Dowell led the way in 13:19, and Ben Freedman had the greatest improvement, knocked 47 seconds off his best to run 13:31.
While the weekend meet action will be taking a hiatus for the next two weeks, the DFDC will be back in action this Tuesday at Vernon Hills for our first CSL North Quad. This meet starts out the drive for a third straight CSL-North championship.