Lake County Invite 2023
DEERFIELD'S DEPTH ON DISPLAY WITH TENTH PLACE FINISH AT LAKE COUNTY INVITE
Grant High School’s Bulldog Athletic Complex was the site of Wednesday’s Lake County Invite. Sixteen team from across Lake County competed on the challenging course that featured many winding turns and three very steep hill climbs.
With two meets this week, Deerfield rested key runners on Wednesday to prioritize Saturday’s race. The top eight finishers at last week’s Deerfield Opener did not race, which mean the next guys in line had to represent Deerfield against other school’s A-teams.
The Deerfield runners followed a gameplan that included a conservative start through the first steep hill before moving up throughout the rest of the race. And they did just that. There were no Deerfield singlets in the front half of the field initially, but then they came charging. Sophomore Scott Harvey had his second stellar race in a row, moving up all the way to 28th place in a big PR of 16:48. He finished as Deerfield’s #1 runner. Next were juniors Ben Freedman and Danny Kriegel in 39th and 50th. Sam Chaban and Will Lambert battled together for most of the race until Chaban took off with a great final mile to finish in 56th and Lambert was the final scorer for the Warriors in 64th. The Warriors took tenth place as a team, which was very impressive for the “next up” guys who filled in for the usual varsity runners. They were able to beat several other school’s best runners, which shows just how deep Deerfield rolls.
In the Open race, 26 Deerfield runners continued the display of depth by finishing in sixth place of 13 teams. This result was very impressive given that Deerfield was missing their best sub-varsity runners too because they were pulled up to the varsity race, so it was really like Deerfield’s C-team against other school’s B-teams, and the Warriors finished in the top half. Jay Noren led the charge out of the gate with a hot start. Ultimately he was passed by teammates Logan Luo and Jon Weissmueller, and then Andrew Calderon who ran his way into the #1 spot with a hot final mile. Luo and Weissmueller crossed the finish line shortly after Calderon solidifying an all-new-runner 1-2-3 for Deerfield with two freshmen and a new sophomore. Noren finished right on the back of that group getting Deerfield four runners under 19 minutes. The Warriors waited a while for the fifth and final scorer, and it was Aurin Dasgupta who emerged with a big PR of 20:25. Dasgupta may not have been expected to be a scoring runner, but he has improved a ton and now figures to be an important piece for Deerfield this season.
Importantly, 16 Warrior freshmen completed the first three-mile race of their careers after running just two miles in the season-opening meet. Finishing the race is the foundational objective in distance running, and now the freshmen can look to improve from there.
Even though the top varsity runners sat out of this meet, The Warriors achieved a lot. The depth they showed is a testament to a strong culture where it’s not just the talented runners who work hard. It’s more difficult to stay consistently motivated when the spotlight isn’t on you, but Deerfield, despite being significantly smaller than many Lake County teams, somehow builds consistent depth that is able to compete above their level.
Next the Warriors move on to Saturday where they will run their full squad at the extremely high-caliber Hinsdale Central Red Devil Invitational against some of the best cross country teams in Illinois.
