Mustangs sweep WSC Gold races!
The Downers Grove South girls cross country team swept all 4 levels of team competition at the WSC Gold Conference Championship meet on Saturday. The host Mustangs also had the individual champion at each level. The first race of the day was the Freshman race. Anjali Kota (Fr) and Elizabeth Culcasi (Fr) took the lead just before the mile mark of the 3.0 mile course at O’Brien Park. They continued to race together until unfortunately, an injury forced Elizabeth to drop out. Anjali continued to lead the race all of the way into the chute and took home the championship with a time of 20:59. Arianna DeLeon (Fr) and Skyler Tomecki (Fr) ran together and moved into 3rd and 4th places during the 2nd mile. They eventually came in 2nd and 3rd for the Mustang 1-2-3 finish. Lindsay Spear (Fr) and Brenda Perez (Fr) also moved up a lot during the race and finished in 8th and 9th places overall to complete the DGS scoring and a low team total of 19 points. Georgia Genin (Fr) was also a medalist with her 16th place finish.
In the following sophomore race, DGS also scored 19 team points for the win. The Mustangs were led by 3 freshmen who were moved up to run the sophomore race. A runner from Willowbrook (Madeline Barrington) led the race through the first mile, but during the 2nd mile, Dana Rodden (Fr) caught her. Dana passed Barrington near the 2 mile mark, but the other girl hung on close to her heals. Dana ran tough and pulled away in the final 400m to win the race by 6 seconds with a time of 20:21. Barrington was 2nd in 20:27, but the Mustangs put the next 5 girls into the finish chute. Nora Joy (Fr) and Madelyn Sumlin (Fr) were not far behind, finishing 3rd and 4th in 20:30 and 20:40 respectively. Peyton Horazy (So), Emma Lopez (So), and Serlida McNerney (So) finished 5th, 6th, and 7th. Additional Mustang medalists were Emily Poska (So) in 9th place, Madolyn Werner (So) in 10th place, and Elise D’Aquila (So) in 13th place.
In the varsity race, DGS dominated, scoring a perfect 15 points and placing all 7 runners ahead of the remainder of the field. Brenna Cohoon (Sr) led from the gun and ran an amazing solo race, winning in an O’Brien Park course record time of 17:27. Brenna is coming on strong at exactly the right time of the season. The other 6 Mustangs are also running well, and ran in pairs for most of the race, passing all of the other competitors during the 2nd mile of the race. Erin Reidy (Sr) and Sophia McNerney (So) were close together most of the race finishing in 2nd and 3rd in 18:00 and 18:11. Rebecca Diddia (Jr) and Alex Spang (So) ran together finishing 4th and 5th with identical 18:39 times. And Kelsey Casella (So) and Kennedy Warden (Sr) completed the perfect sweep with their 6th and 7th places finishes (18:42 and 18:48). All seven varsity runners earned All-Conference honors. The varsity team will continue their season next week at the Lyons Township regional as the first step in the IHSA state series.
The final race of the day was the JV race. The Mustangs duplicated the results of the varsity race by finishing with the first 7 places. Renee Kowalski (So) took the lead about 3/4 of mile into the race and pulled away from the field for the easy victory in 19:21. Madi Sisson (So), Sara Homberg (So), and Ria Patel (Jr) made up the next pack of Mustang runners. They moved into 2nd through 4th places, respectively, by the mile and held those spots all the way to the finish (20:03, 20:30, 20:56). The trio of Meghan Stapleton (Jr), Madison Wies (Jr), and Sydney Gaspari (Sr) ran well together for most of the race and finished in the 5th, 6th, and 7th places. Meghan made a huge surge in the last 800m to lead them into the chute (21:26, 21:47, 21:47) Additional Mustang medalists were Saskia Krebbers (Jr) in 10th place, Grace Schultheis (Sr) in 12th place, Gillian Musial (Sr) in 13th place, and Maya Scheck (Jr) in 15th place.
Congratulations to all of the Mustang runners who completed their competitive season yesterday and good luck to the state series group that will continue on over the next few weeks!
