Mustangs win Sectional!

The DGS girls cross country team placed 1st out of 19 teams at the IHSA Marist Sectional meet on Saturday.  The Mustangs scored 69 pts to easily outdistance runner-up Lyons Township (101 pts), Lockport (101 pts), Hinsdale Central (114 pts), and Plainfield North (136 pts).  All of the top 5 teams punched their ticket to next week’s IHSA State Championship meet.

Brenna Cohoon (Fr) led the Mustangs for the 2nd week in a row, finishing in 5th place overall. Erin Reidy (Fr) joined Cohoon in earning All-Sectional honors with her 10th place finish. Melissa Weidner (So) was close behind in 12th place and Becky Versaskas (So) finished in 18th place. Katie Stapleton (Sr) rounded out the scoring with her 24th place finish. Kennedy Warden (Fr) and Olivia Duax (So) were finished in 30th and 48th places respectively.

When the race started, all seven DGS runners got out strong were spread out over the first 15-20 positions. Erin Reidy and Katie Stapleton were in the top 5-6 places, while Brenna Cohoon, Melissa Weidner, and Becky Versaskas were placed around 10-12. As they approached the first mile, only 6 seconds separated the Mustang 1-5 pack with Reidy leading the way. Much of the 2nd mile of the Midlothian Meadows course is routed through a woodland path and when the runners emerged, positions had changed somewhat. Cohoon had moved up into the top 7, followed closely by Reidy and Weidner. About 10-12 seconds back was Versaskas, followed by Stapleton another 7-8 seconds back. Both Kennedy Warden and Olivia Duax had positioned themselves ahead of several top 5 runners from Lyons Township, Lockport, and Hinsdale Central. This pushed their team scores even higher. The Mustang packed picked up a couple of positions over the final mile of the course, leading to the final placings and the team victory. DGS individual results/splits can be found on the Schedule/Results page. Full meet results can be found here.

As has been the case all season long, this was a great team win! Our girls have worked together and helped each other through some tough races. I’m very proud of the fact that when one teammate has struggled, another teammate has always stepped up and gotten the job done. Today was no exception as all seven varsity runners played an important role in this win.

The sectional championship is the 3rd one earned by DGS over the past 6 seasons. It also marked the 6th straight trip to State for the entire team. DGS will compete next Saturday at Detweiller Park in Peoria against 24 other teams for the state championship. Our race will be at 1:00 pm. Please consider making the trip to Peoria next weekend to cheer on our Mustangs!