WSC Gold Conference Champions!

On Saturday, the DGS girls cross country team traveled to Katherine Legge Memorial Park in Hinsdale to compete in the WSC Gold Championship meet. The Mustangs left victorious with a dominating performance on every level. DGS won the sophomore, JV, and varsity team competitions with ease while also capturing the individual championship in every race. This year marked the 18th year in row that the varsity team left the meet as conference champions, a streak that began in 1999. It was also the 31st championship in 36 years.

The first race of the day was the freshman race. The Mustangs only entered 3 girls in this race, which unfortunately eliminated the possibility of posting a team score. We have a pretty small freshman class this season with only 7 girls and 4 of them were running up at the sophomore and varsity levels. The remaining freshman did a great job in this first race with Marlo Rachie (Fr) making a strong move during the 2nd mile to take the lead and eventually finish in 1st place in 22:12. Gillian Musial (Fr) had her best race of the season (24:02), finishing in 8th place out of 50 freshman runners. Zoe Kurzweil (Fr) also had a strong race (27:20), placing 31st overall.

The next race was the sophomore race where we entered 6 girls. Allison Calek (So) took the lead right from the gun and held it for the entire race to finish as the sophomore individual champion in 19:57! She was followed by 2 more Mustangs as DGS completed the 1-2-3 sweep. Julie LaLonde (So) ran a season best time (20:20) to place 2nd overall.  Erin Glennon (Fr) handled the move up to the sophomore level with ease as she placed 3rd out of 60 sophomore runners with 21:06. Amanda Annese (So) finished in 5th place not far behind Erin with a season best time of 21:22. The 5th scoring runner for DGS was Clare Quirin (So) who just slipped in under 22 minutes, finishing 11th with a time of 21:59.  First year runner, Amina Hosic (So) had a nice race as well, finishing in 40th place with 26:20. The sophomore team scored 21 pts easily win the team title over 2nd place Morton (47 pts).

The varsity team entered the race as heavy favorites to win the team title and didn’t disappoint. The 7 Mustang varsity runners finished in the first 7 places for the first time in conference history and scored a perfect 15 pts for 1st place. Katie Stapleton (Sr) repeated as the individual conference champion as she cruised to finish line in 18:13. The next 3 girls were packed up within 8 seconds of each other with Brenna Cohoon (Fr) taking 2nd place in 18:29. She was followed closely by Becky Versaskas (So) who ran 18:31 to place 3rd. Melissa Weidner (So) completed the trifecta with her 4th place finish in 18:37.  Erin Reidy (Fr) was uncharacteristically 40 seconds further back, but still managed 5th place in 19:17. Olivia Duax (So) continued her strong sophomore season with a 6th place finish in 19:24. The final finisher for the Mustangs was 7th place Kennedy Warden (Fr) with a time of 19:40. This group will continue to compete over the next 3 weeks as DGS enters the IHSA state series.

The final race of the day was the JV race. It was also the largest with 18 Mustangs entered in the field of 99 runners. Before the race started, I challenged the team to improve upon the varsity sweep of the first 7 places. They were definitely up to the task, putting the first 9 finishers into the chute (and 12 out of the first 13 finishers)! Gillian Thomas (Jr) stormed into the lead immediately and continued to stretch that lead for the whole race, eventually winning by more than 30 seconds with a time of 19:48. Kara Petersen (Sr) was the runner-up, placing 2nd in 20:22. She was followed by a trio of Mustangs including Riya Bhasin (Jr) who was 3rd in 20:39, Hailey Rodden (Jr) who was 4th in 20:44, and Carli Smid (Jr) who finished 5th in 20:48. Megan Albers (Sr) was the next DGS runner in the chute with her 6th place finish in 21:01. Natalie Olsen (Jr) completed her comeback from injury, finishing her only race of the season in 7th place with a very competitive 21:36 time. Annie Engel (Sr) saved her best race for last as she ran 21:37 for 8th place. Sarah Ansah (Jr) was close behind to place 9th overall in 21:41. Mary Eterno (Sr) ran a gutsy race in only her 2nd race of the season to finish 11th in 22:05. Amber McCauley (Jr) was only one step behind in 22:06 for her 12th place finish. Johanna Skibbe (Jr) completed the group of Mustang front runners with her 13th place finish in 22:11. The JV team also scored a perfect 15 pts to take the team championship and finish off the day with an exclamation point!

I also want to mention a group of athletes that did not get the opportunity to compete on Saturday (Emily Kaszyk-Sr, Victoria Protsyuk-Sr, Gabby Senne-Jr, Katie Meyr-Jr, Teagan Halik-Jr). These girls not only missed out on running in the conference meet, but several other meets this season due to injuries. Not being able to run when all of your friends and teammates are heading excitedly to the starting line can be extremely frustrating. But I give these girls all the credit in the world as they still showed up every day, attempted to cross-train when appropriate, helped with whatever needed to be done at practices and meets, and most importantly still made a positive impact on the team. We would not have been as successful as we have been without these outstanding young ladies!

I am extremely proud of the entire team for what they have accomplished not only on Saturday, but all season long. This is an amazing group of girls that have loved and supported each other throughout the entire time we’ve been together. They truly embody the meaning of the word teammates!

Full DGS individual results & splits can be found on the Schedule/Results page. Complete meet results can be found on the Athletic.net page.