Mudfest at CSL Championship
The CSL Championship races featured plenty of rain, wind and mud. Plenty of puddles and standing water were already present before the first race, and the level of mud only continued to rise as the day went on. While that took away any chance of PR's, those that took to the starting line ready to compete fared very well. This was Deerfield's first foray into the CSL South and program-wide we fared very well. In the open race, we placed 2nd, the JV took 3rd, and Varsity 5th.
The open race featured a tightly contested and exciting battle for first between Annie and a Maine South runner. This was a co-ed race, so it wasn't always easy to determine who was winning the girls race. However, the astute observer could see Annie and her foe swapping places throughout the two-mile race. Annie made a move to take the lead heading into the last turn. She extended that lead to a couple seconds going down the final stretch. The Maine South runner made a nice response and though they both finished with the exact same time, the photo finish determined Annie came in 2nd place. Clara returned from a sprained ankle to claim 4th place. We only had 5 runners in this race, so gutsy efforts by Lexi, Lily, and Cami allowed us to register a 2nd place team score.
The JV squad was led by an aggressive Hannah Bennie. She forged to the front early and stayed in the top 5 throughout the entire race. Hannah is our strongest girl in the weight room and that came in handy as she powered through the adverse conditions. Randi, just two weeks removed from surgery, had an inspiring race just missing out on All-Conference honors. She placed 15th. Siona had a gutsy effort to continually push the pace and hang with Randi. She took 20th place and right behind her was "Gwenny" who had her best showing of the season. Toughness is hard to measure, but this whole group demonstrated they had plenty of it. Jessica rounded out our scoring with Brooke not far behind her.
On the Varsity level, Audrey tried to get the team going with an aggressive start. She put herself in great position early on, with the rest of the team strung out behind her. Eventually, we had a pack of 5 with just a 25-second split which is very encouraging moving forward. This has been and will continue to be the strength of this team. In the end, we spotted the competitors too much of a lead early on. Despite moving up throughout the race, the efforts were only good enough for 5th in the CSL South. Our freshmen continue to amaze as Azalea and Maddie were our first two finishers. Mira displayed her ability to climb through the pack throughout the race and she brought Audrey along with her to the chute. Maya completed our scoring as the 5th Warrior.
