First To The Finish Invite 2022
WARRIORS PLACE NINTH IN STRONG FIELD OF 16 RANKED TEAMS AT DETWEILLER PARK
The First To The Finish Invitational might as well be called “Pre-State.” The meet is held at Detweiller Park, the annual site of the IHSA State Championships, and the 2A race features most of the top teams who will likely return for the State Championships in November—16 of the top 25 ranked teams this year. So Deerfield got a chance to see where they stack up against the best.
Dane Brown and Dylan Cohen led the way early with Jon Wool close behind. They got out in 5:12 for the first mile and kept moving up through the top fifty. In the second mile Cohen and Brown pulled away from Wool, but Cohen got a serious cramp that cost him his race. Brown carried on solo, and with a strong last mile he worked his way up to a 29th place finish.
Drew Spiegel led Ryan Jones through the first mile in Deerfield’s 4th and 5th position, and then Jones took over the pacing duties for the second and third miles while Spiegel tried to hold on. This tactic benefitted both runners’ races. Jones moved up a ton in the last 1.5 miles passing dozens of people and ultimately catching Wool and pulling him into the finish. The 16:32 finish was another PR for Jones, this time by 19 seconds. Spiegel lost touch with Jones in the last mile but was already ahead of where he would have been without Jones as a target. Spiegel finished fourth for the Warriors in 16:48, a 15-second PR. Eric Hogenkamp rounded out the scoring in 135th place.
Deerfield finished ninth in this stacked field of 55 teams that included 16 of the top 25 teams in the state. While impressive, the team was hoping for a higher finish. Last year, the Warriors finished third at this meet and then second at the State Championships, so Deerfield hopes to continue the trend of finishing higher at State than at First To The Finish. Plus, there’s some additional confidence in the fact that the Warriors were without Cohen, and there were some promising performances in the Open race that may impact varsity down the road.
Since the Open race combined the classes, there were 900 runners on the line for one very crowded race. Dust clouds were being kicked up in the air, and some of the turns got so congested that runners had to slow to a walk. But Nick Dowell found his way though all that to finish in 27th place in a 39-second PR of 16:45. Jamie Chandler continued his string of good races to kick off his young career. He slipped under the 17-minute barrier in 16:58 to finish 40th. Danny Kriegel, Scott Harvey, Sam Rush, Will Lambert, and Rohin Krishnan all PR’d which made it seven of seven PRs for Deerfield in this race. This group of just frosh/soph runners placed 14th of 54 teams in the Open race which included 3A teams and allowed juniors and seniors.
It was another excellent trip to Peoria for the Warriors who will take this experience at Detweiller Park with them to the State Championships in November and future State Championships for the younger runners.
