DGS wins IHSA Sectional!

DGS dominates IHSA Sectional Meet!

The Downers Grove South girls cross country team won the IHSA Sectional meet on Saturday, earning a trip to next weekend’s State Championship meet. In contrast to last week’s close regional meet victory over Lyons Township (36-38), DGS dominated the competition at the sectional meet. The Mustangs scored 29 points to easily outdistance 2nd place Lyons Township (59 points), Hinsdale Central (80 points), Downers Grove North (104 points), and Plainfield North (164 points). In the race that contained 17 different teams and 129 runners, we placed 5 runners in the top 10, and all 7 runners in the top 15. Additionally, all seven DGS runners ran lifetime personal bests on the 3.0 mile course.

Brenna Cohoon (Jr) once again led the Mustangs with her 1st place finish. She took the lead at the start and fought back challenges by both Abby Lopez of Argo and McKenna Revord of Hinsdale Central. Over the last mile, she pulled away to win by 7 seconds. Brenna’s time of 17:01 lowered her own school record by 4 seconds. Melissa Weidner (Sr) continued her breakout season with a huge PR time of 17:13. Melissa ran in 5th place for most of the race, but unleashed a great kick in the last 150m to pass both Abby Lopez (Argo) and Kate Dickman (Lyons Township) to finish in 3rd place!

Erin Reidy (Jr) sat out last week’s regional meet, but came back strong to place 6th at the sectional. Erin went out early in the race with Melissa and the duo separated themselves from the remainder of the field. Erin fell back slightly but maintained a large gap with those chasing her. Her time of 17:32 was also a PR. Kennedy Warden (Jr) and Rebecca Diddia (So) ran together for much of the race and crossed the finish line in 9th and 10th places. Their times of 17:46 and 17:47 were both PR times. All five of the Mustang scorers earned All-Sectional honors with their top 10 finishes.

Both Alex Spang (Fr) and Kelsey Casella (Fr) rounded out the varsity 7 by placing 13th and 15th respectively. Alex finished in 18:06 and Kelsey finished in 18:19. With 3 seniors among our top 10 runners this season, having these freshmen (plus fellow freshman Sophia McNerney) contribute makes the future look bright for DGS. Senior, Becky Versaskas has been a varsity mainstay for the past 4 years, but sat out this race with an illness. Her addition to line-up next week at State will help make a formidable Mustang line-up even stronger. Additional members of the DGS state series team are:  Olivia Duax (Sr), Allison Calek (Sr), Renee Kowalski (Fr), Sara Homberg (Fr), and Gretchen Scheck (Fr).

Full meet results can be found at Athletic.net. Individual times and splits can be found on the Schedule/Results page.

The IHSA State Championship meet is next Saturday, Nov.3rd at Detweiller Park in Peoria. The 3A girls race will start at 1:00pm.