IHSA Regionals 2023
DEERFIEDL WINS 3A REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
An upset! In the first round of the IHSA State Series, #22/23 Deerfield was confident in their ability to advance to Sectionals by finishing in the top six at Regionals, but they did not expect to win the entire Regional. A year ago, Deerfield placed second at a 2A Regional. Now, after being elevated to the much more difficult Class 3A, Deerfield is bringing home a Regional Champions plaque.
Grant hosted the Regional at their Bulldog Athletic Complex. Twelve teams lined up run for a Regional title and six Sectional-qualifying spots. Almost immediately, Barrington and Deerfield packs were running at the front of the race.
The early pace was hot as the front pack came through the mile in 5:07 despite a very steep hill ascended twice in the first mile. In the latter half of that first mile, the Barrington pack started to fall apart while Deerfield kept four runners in the top pack and a fifth not too far back. One Barrington runner stayed at the front, but the rest faded back pretty far. Dylan Cohen and Jamie Chandler were right at the front while Jon Wool and Eric Hogenkamp were a few meters back. Dane Brown was several seconds behind his teammates.
At the two-mile mark, Deerfield had a large lead in the team score causing a frenzy among their supporters. Barrington’s top runner and a few others started pulling away from Cohen and Chandler, but the five Deerfield runners held on strong while the rest of Barrington was still behind Deerfield. The third mile was tough after the fast start, but Deerfield didn’t fade and Barrington didn’t come back. Cohen and Chandler finished in sixth and eighth place. Brown, who struggled last week at Conference, had a dynamite final mile and surged from the team’s fifth position all the way to third position in 9th place, just one second behind Chandler. Wool was two second behind Brown in 11th, and Hogenkamp, who was hurting badly in the final mile, minimized the damage and finished in 13th place in 16:08. Ben Freedman was the sixth Warrior in the chute in 27th place and Andrew Firestone finished in the seventh position in 35th place overall. All the Deerfield runners ran 20-60 seconds faster than they ran on this same course one month ago showing tremendous improvement.
With all five scorers separated by just 12 seconds and all in the top 13, Deerfield won the Regional Championship in a rout with 47 points over Barrington’s 75 points for second.
The part that made this so exciting was that Deerfield was not expected to win. Barrington was the heavy favorite in this regional, but they rested a few key top runners thinking they would still have enough to win. In other words, Deerfield was underestimated.
This is only the second Regional championship for Deerfield in the 3A class. The other time was in 2010.
Next, the Warriors will take on the Hoffman Estates Sectional for a chance to qualify for the big school State Finals for the first time since 1982.
