by Kyle Stephens
On June 18th, the Northern Area ran its second drill of the 2011 season in Deerfield. East Islip and part of Central Islip made the journey upstate along with the Drill Team Radio show. The weather was a complete turnaround from Northern Convention the week before. It was a muggy day with a very slight breeze, a temperature around 85 degrees and sunny.
The day began, as usual, with 3-Man Ladder which was very competitive. East Islip came out on top, running a 6.38 with Central Islip coming in a close second with a 6.41 even though they didn’t have their normal 3-Man team. Elsmere and Copenhagen took third and fourth place, with Elsmere running .2 seconds quicker with a time of 6.94.
The host team, Deerfield, started off B Ladder. While getting off the truck, their climber, Jason, rolled his ankle and wasn’t able to finish the climb. To make matters worse, he would not be able to run the rest of the tournament. He went to the hospital but was okay and returned to the track later that day. Copenhagen’s thrower, Bill, suffered a similar fate during their run of B Ladder but he was able to finish out the day. After all of that, it was East Islip who took first place in the even with a time 5.72. It’s also worth noting that Great Bend took fifth place, scoring points in B Ladder for the second week in a row.
Since Deerfield’s climber was injured, it was time for them to find a replacement. Marc Stephens, Ilion’s climber back in the early 90’s, stepped up to the plate. The last time he climbed C Ladder, Ilion’s C truck was involved in an accident which eventually ended Ilion’s team all together (but that’s a story for another time.) With a time of 13.45, they took fourth place. Taking first place was Lake Placid with a time of 10.30. Louisville finished in second place.
East Islip, who had an outstanding run of 12.84, took C Hose. It was their first tournament of the year as well. Lake Placid took second place, running a 15.08 and Deerfield third with a time of 16.30. Louisville was disqualified from their run for failing to put an adaptor on the hydrant. In B Hose, Lake Placid was able to win their second event of the day with a 9.30. Elsmere came in second, right behind them with a run of 9.52.
In the Efficiency contest we got another look at the partial team from Central Islip. They finished third in the event behind East Islip (9.87) and Elsmere (9.97.) The Guzzlers also took first place in Motor Hose Replacement, which is remarkable because they normally do not run this contest. They only practiced the race once during the week (so they say...) Their time was 18.26 seconds which beat everyone else by over a second. Louisville came in second followed by Deerfield. East Islip also took motor pump with a time of 6.24. The Great Bend Cobras had an outstanding run, considering it was their second tournament ever, running a time of 8.86.
By this time, East Islip had wrapped up the tournament win. The battle now was for first place for Northern points and second place overall in the tournament. Once again, it came down to Buckets. Heading into buckets, Lake Placid had 19 points, Elsmere had 16, Copenhagen with 14, Louisville had 13 and Deerfield had 11. With East Islip winning buckets, there were 4 points up for grabs. Lake Placid failed to score any points and left the door wide open for Elsmere to steal second place in the tournament. Copenhagen ended up taking those 4 points with a time of 27.98. Louisville finished in third, Elsmere was fourth and Deerfield took fifth.
The final standings for the drill were as follows:
1st Place – East Islip - 36 Pts.
2nd Place – Lake Placid - 19 Pts.
3rd Place (Tie) - Elsmere/Copenhagen - 18 Pts.
5th Place – Louisville - 16 Pts.
Congratulations to the East Islip Guzzlers for their tournament win. The next Northern race will be in the heart of the beautiful Adirondack Mountains where “miracles” tend to happen…
You guessed it! We’ll be in Lake Placid on July 9th with a start time of 12:00 noon. Will any miracles happen this year? Stay tuned to find out!
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