Medalist Maddie among 16 PR's in Peoria

Deerfield went downstate to Peoria to race on the famed Detweiller Park in the First to the Finish Invite.  Temps held around 70 degrees, which is about all you could ask for in early September.  This course is known to be fast, so using elite competition to push us for PR's was the name of the game.

Of the 22 Warriors who raced over this distance this year, 16 came away with PR's.  Danielle had the biggest improvement of over 5 minutes - 5:16 to be exact!  Others who dropped at least a minute included Lexi 2:11, Clara 1:02, Riley 1:06, Lily 3:04, Gwenyth 1:08, Meimei 1:46, and Maddie improved by exactly 2 minutes.

Maddie's huge PR came in the open race where she was our only medalist on the day.  In a race of over 700 runners, she placed 17th.  Brooke, Gwenyth, Jessica, and Isabelle comprised the rest of the top 5 in the open race, which was good for 9th place out of 49 teams!  This meet is loaded with high-power programs, so to finish this high is a huge achievement!

The varsity also ran well and ended up in 20th place.  The Warriors were bumped to 3A this year (the highest classification in cross country) and we held our own among much bigger schools.  Olivia led the way with a season best of 49 seconds.  The power of the pack was on full display again with 3 freshman (Audrey, Azalea, Stella) and Mira all finishing within 9 seconds of each other.