Naperville Invite/Griak Invite meet report

This past weekend, the DGS girls cross country split up the team and headed to two different meets. The varsity team traveled to Minnesota to compete in the Roy Griak Invitational against some of the best teams from across the country. The JV and Frosh-Soph teams competed on Friday night at the Naperville Invite. Both teams fought through unseasonably hot temperatures, but still fared well in both meets.

The varsity placed 6th out of 45 teams at the Roy Griak meet. Brenna Cohoon (So) once again led the Mustangs with her 29th place finish on the hilly, 5K course with over 400 runners in the race. Melissa Weidner (Jr) stepped up as the #2 runner for DGS, finishing in 47th place. She was followed closely by Becky Versaskas (Jr) and Rebecca Diddia (Fr) who placed 55th and 56th respectively. Erin Reidy (So) finished out the scoring with her 62nd place finish. Other Mustang finishers were Olivia Duax (Jr) in 84th, Kennedy Warden (So) in 86th, Kelley Hackbarth (Sr) in 117th, Gillian Thomas (Sr) in 136th, and Allison Calek (Jr) in 287th. The 6th place finish was impressive considering the level of competition at the Griak meet. The top 3 finishing teams (Naperville North, Great Oaks, Wayzata) are all ranked in the top 10 nationally. The only other 2 teams that finished ahead of DGS were Sun Prairie (WI#1), and St.Michael-Albertville (MN#3). DGS finished ahead of IL#2 Yorkville and MN#4 Edina, as well as a host of other highly ranked teams from the Midwest.

Both the Frosh-Soph and JV teams placed 3rd out of 12 teams at the Naperville Invite. In the F/S race, Maya Scheck (Fr) led the Mustangs with her 13th place finish. Renee Nicholson (Fr) placed 15th, followed by Olivia Meyer (Fr) in 24th, Kailey Ferguson (Fr) in 27th, and Meghan Stapleton (Fr) in 28th. In the JV race, Julie LaLonde (Jr) was the top DGS finisher in 3rd place. Riya Bhasin (Sr) also cracked the top 10 with her 9th place finish. Hailey Rodden (Sr), Teagan Halik (Jr), and Carli Smid (Sr) rounded out the DGS scoring with 17th, 18th, and 32nd place finishes.

On Monday, October 2, the Mustangs will host our final home meet of the season at O’Brien Park. The F/S and JV teams will take on Morton and Addison Trail at 4:45pm.

On Wednesday, October 4, all levels will return to Naperville North HS for the Twilight Invite. This meet will be a high powered state meet preview featuring most of the top ranked teams in Illinois, including #1 Naperville North, #2 Yorkville, #3 DGS, #4 Glenbard West, #5 Hinsdale Central, #7 Wheaton-Warrenville South, #9 Minooka, #16 Naperville Central, and #24 Plainfield North. This will be the final test for the varsity team before the state series begins on October 21.