Big Indoor Meets Coming Up!
The DGS girls track & field team has a very busy meet schedule over the next few weeks and it’s loaded with several high-powered meets filled with some amazing competition!
Starting this week on Thursday, March 3rd, the Mustangs will travel to North Central College for the Cardinal Classic Invitational. This is an extremely competitive, varsity level, 14-team meet held on the very fast 200m track at NCC. The field will include teams such as Lincoln-Way East with great sprinters and field events, as well as many of the traditional distance powerhouses like Naperville North and Yorkville.
The varsity team will return to North Central College on Monday, March 7th to host the 13th annual Mustang Relays. This has become one of the premier indoor meets in Illinois. DGS will host 35 girls teams and 35 boys teams that will all compete in the 4x800m relay, 4x200m relay, and 4x400m relay. This unusual all-relay format consistently produces some of the fastest relay times in Illinois and across the nation.
On Wednesday, March 9th, DGS frosh/soph and JV athletes will travel to Wheaton South HS for the 6-team Tiger JV Invitational. This is yet another meet with great competition from some of the top area schools. This meet provides an opportunity for the non-varsity athletes to continue to compete, improve, and earn places in future varsity meets. In addition to watching our athletes compete, we are excited to see the new video scoreboard that’s tied into the WWS timing system.
Friday, March 11th brings Batavia Distance Madness, a meet that is new to the DGS track schedule. This is a distance only meet where only the 800m, 1600m, and 3200m events will be raced. The top 12 Mustang varsity distance runners will be competing against another amazing field of 15 teams on the very fast Batavia 200m track. We expect this this format to produce some blazing times as multiple defending state champions will take to the track. The field should include 2015 3200m state champ, Judy Pendergast of Naperville North, 2015 800m state champ, Michaela Hackbarth of Downers South, and 2014 1600m state champ, Annie Zaher of Hinsdale Central among others.
On Saturday, March 12th, the Mustangs will compete in the Proviso East Lady Pirate Invitational meet. The 24-team meet will be held on the 200m track at Proviso West HS and both frosh/soph and varsity levels will be contested. This meet is super-charged with some of the best sprint & hurdle schools in Illinois as well as a few elite distance programs. Speed is the name of the game at the PE Invite and I’m sure this year will not disappoint.
Most of the DGS track & field team will conclude the indoor portion of our schedule at the March 18th WSC Gold Conference Championship Meet held at Addison Trail HS. This meet is contested on both frosh/soph and varsity levels. Currently, the Mustangs have won 11 consecutive varsity conference championships and we will look to make it 12 in a row that night.
We expect to have several athletes invited to compete in the Illinois Top Times meet on Saturday, March 26th. The meet is held on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University and is considered to be the ‘unofficial indoor state meet.’ The meet organizers only invite the top 12-15 athletes in the state in each event to compete and it’s quite an honor to get invited.
Downers Grove South will compete in the first outdoor meet of the season on Wednesday, April 6th at home against York HS and Downers Grove North HS.
