State Meet Prelim Recap
DGS competed well in the prelims last Friday at the IHSA State Championship meet. The goal for each event was to qualify on to the Saturday finals. The field events and distance events take 12 to the finals, The sprint events take 9 to the finals.
Maddie Manganiello (Fr) started us off in the long jump with a leap of 15-2.5 to finish 25th out of 29 qualifiers. While Maddie did not advance to Saturday’s finals, she gained valuable experience to draw upon over the next 3 years. She finished as the best freshman long jumper in school history.
The 4x100m relay team of Nicole Muccianti (So), Soren Umali (So), Rachel Petro (Sr), and Shaliyah Dixon-Tucker (Jr) ran a season best time of 48.70 on Friday to finish 13th out of the 34 qualifiers. They did not advance (missing by .13 seconds), but were still able to run their best race of the year when it counted most.
Both Shaliyah Dixon-Tucker and Soren Umali competed next in the 100m hurdles. Soren ran a season best time of 15.17 to finish 15th out of the 26 qualifiers. Shaliyah ran 15.03 to finish 10th and narrowly miss finals by .01 seconds. We expect to see both of them in the finals next season!
Michaela Hackbarth (Jr) punched her ticket to the Saturday finals by winning her heat of the 800m run with a time of 2:15.97. She was able to run a relaxed pace and conserve energy for her 3 other races of the weekend.
In the 300m hurdles, Soren Umali ran 46.72 to finish 21st out of 34 state qualifiers. Katie Stapleton (So) made her state meet debut in the 1600m with a time of 5:21.03 that netted her 37th place out of the 43 qualifiers. Both of these talented sophomores gained valuable state meet experience that will allow them to improve their positions next year.
The final qualifying event of the day was the 4x400m relay. The team of Lauren Wong (Jr), Rachel Petro, Mary Beine (Sr), and Michaela Hackbarth ran a season best time of 3:56.63 to qualify for the Saturday finals.
At the end of Friday, the Mustangs were left with 3 entries in the finals. Abby Kargol in the 3200m run, Michaela Hackbarth in the 800m run, and the 4x400m relay team.
