Girls Track is State Bound!

The DGS girls track & field team competed at the IHSA Plainfield North Sectional on Thursday. The Mustangs qualified several individuals and a relay team to next week’s IHSA State Championship meet.

Maddie Manganiello (Sr) led the march to Charleston with a 5th place finish and state qualifying leap of 17′ 7.5″ in the long jump. Maddie has qualified for state in the long jump for 4 straight years. Last season she placed 7th in the state and will be looking to improve on that finish next week.  Brenna Cohoon (So) was the next individual qualifier for DGS with her 3rd place finish in the 3200m and a qualifying time of 10:54.34. Brenna finished 16th in this event at last year’s state meet. Kelley Hackbarth (Sr) finished in 4th place in the 800m run, but her time of 2:19..34 was under the qualifying standard which earned her a trip to state. She will be joined by 1600m qualifier, Erin Reidy (So). Erin finished in 5th place, but met the qualifying mark by running 5:08.81.

Both Kelley and Erin were also part of the DGS state qualifying 4x800m relay. They were joined by Becky Versaskas (Jr) and Gillian Thomas (Sr) as they took 1st place in the hotly contested event. The Mustangs battled with Hinsdale Central, Naperville North, and Naperville Central for much of the race. On the 3rd leg, Hinsdale Central took the lead with DGS close behind, but with both teams pulling away from the Naperville teams. Erin Reidy took the lead with about 200m left in the race and held on for the first place finish with a team time of 9:12.83. The Mustang quartet smashed the previous school record (9:21.84) that was set back in 1988 by Becky Mizener, Mindy Sick, Nicole Molzhan, and Tina Stec. Heading into the state meet competition, DGS currently has the fastest time in Illinois and the #16 time in the nation.

The Mustang distance runners had several other great performances at the sectional meet. Kennedy Warden (So) barely missed qualifying for state in the 1600m with her 6th place finish, while Melissa Weidner (Jr) met the same fate with her 6th place in the 3200m. Both girls ran PR times, but came up just short of the qualifying standards. Rebecca Diddia (Fr) finished 7th in the 800m run with a time of 2:25.28. Gillian Thomas (Sr) and Olivia Duax (Jr) finished 9th and 16th respectively in the 400m dash with season best times. The 4x400m relay team of Becky Versaskas (Jr), Kelley Hackbarth (Sr), Alisha Macas (Jr), and Erin Reidy (So) placed 5th and narrowly missed the qualifying time.

The sprint crew finished the season with several great season best races and top 6 finishes.  The team of Alexus Allen (Sr), Mya Rouse (Fr), Ariel Johnson (So), and Clarice Maes (Jr) placed 6th in both the 4x100m and 4x200m relays. Izzy Taylor (Sr) who was new to the hurdles, ran a great 300H race to finish in 6th. Kamile Dirzys (So) was not far behind her finishing in 10th place. Maddie Puccillo (Jr) and Gianna Lukacik (Jr) finished 10th and 15th respectively in the 100m hurdles.

In the field events,  Ariel Johnson (So) leaped to 7th place in the triple jump and finished 10th in the long jump. Lillian Dempsey (Jr) placed 9th in the pole vault and Brianna Johnson (Sr) placed 12th in the high jump.

The Mustang qualifiers will conclude the 2018 season next Friday and Saturday at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Let’s bring home some hardware!