Hornet/Red Devil Invite 2022
DEERFIELD PLACES STRONG 13TH AT TOUGH HORNET/RED DEVIL INVITE, CHANDLER FINISHES SEVENTH IN FRESHMAN RACE
The Hinsdale Hornet/Red Devil Invite, co-hosted by Hinsdale Central and South, is one of the most stacked cross country meets in Illinois each year. West-suburban Chicago is arguably the most highly concentrated area in the nation for top-tier cross country programs, and many of them attend this meet. Six of the top 12 ranked 3A teams in Illinois were at this meet, so the competition was tough, and the atmosphere was electric. Katherine Legge Park is a tough course, and the climbing temperatures throughout the day did not help the athletes run faster, but cross country is all about place, not times.
The course narrows quickly, so when Dane Brown got out hot, teammates Dylan Cohen and Jon Wool got separated from him in the traffic. Brown ran solo for the first half of the race until Cohen was able to close the gap on him and pass him. Cohen was the first finisher for the Warriors in 51st place with Brown finishing in 63rd. Ryan Jones started in the next Deerfield pack, but moved up brilliantly. He ultimately passed Wool finishing in 75th in a 31-second PR of 16:51. Wool finished 80th. Drew Spiegel had a strong race as the fifth man running 17:06 which is just three seconds off his PR, but this time on a much tougher course. In the team standings, Deerfield finished in 13th out of 20 teams. This was a good result as the twelve teams that beat them are very strong. Deerfield finished as the top 2A team and the top CSL North team.
The individual achievement of the day occurred in the freshman race. Jamie Chandler started the race just outside the top ten. He was surrounded by the top freshmen from giant schools with powerhouse cross country programs, but he moved up among them. In the second mile he moved into seventh place, and he held onto that spot to the end. At this meet, the top ten finishers in each race participate in the awards ceremony, and it is such a difficult top ten to make that only three Deerfield runners have done it at any level since the team started competing in this race in 2011. Chandler is now the fourth. The other Deerfield freshmen behind Chandler showed tremendous improvement. The 1.98 mile race distance is odd, but it is clear that most of the freshmen were on pace to PR by a ton had they gone the extra 0.02 miles. Two of those freshmen were the #2 and #3 runners for the team. Will Lambert dipped under 12 minutes and Jay Noren, who ran 14:53 last week, ran a spectacular 13:23.
In the sophomore race, Deerfield had a small but mighty team. Nick Dowell earned a top 25 medal with his 22nd place finish in 17:24. Rohin Krishnan had a strong race in a PR of 20:23.
The final race of the day was the Open race where Deerfield’s “Speed Group” attacked the course with ferocity. These athletes focus on sprinting events in track season, but you wouldn’t know it by how tough they raced. They were led by John Healy in 23rd place in 11:29.
It’s always humbling to compete against such strong cross country programs, but it a valuable experience that will serve the runners well at future meets. Next week, the Warriors split squads with one group heading to the First To The Finish Invitational in Peoria while the other group races at the Lake Park Invite.
