DGS Distance Update

We are now a few weeks into the competition season and are off to about as good a start as DGS has had in several years.  This years distance group continues to impress with their hard work and continual improvement.  The terrible weather conditions have not sullied our spirit, and to the credit of the team, has not forced us to alter the training program a whole lot.  Today was a perfect example as we finished our last mile repeat today at about 5 pm while the wind chill was just barely, but desperately clinging to positive numbers.  

This week will see us compete at Proviso West on "PR Thursday" and then we're off to North Central College's amazing indoor facility for our very own Mustang Relays.  It'll be exciting to see how fast we can race on these nice tracks after a fantastic 13 days of race-free training.  

As aforementioned, we've started well.  A few highlights from the early going warrant mentioning.

Our long distance crew has started particularly strong with some solid showings in the 3200.  David Fish leads the way with his PR race at PW Invite of 9:48.  Joey Eterno may have stole the show that day, however, winning the sophomore 3200 with a huge PR of 10:11.  Joey was only 3 seconds off the all-time Sophomore record for DGS.  This Thursday should see a number of others better their PRs in that event.  Jack LaLonde started his season just recently with a 10:32 and he'll look to have a huge improvement on that.  Max O'Meara, who's outdoor best last year was 10:08 will be in the race as well.

In the 1600, we've already had 9 Mustangs under 5 minutes. Jacob Amiri leads the way with his 4:30 performance from early Feb. David Fish is currently 2nd on the team and could potentially knock Jacob out of that top slot on Thursday.  Peter Fish ran great at the PW Invite, barely missing the Soph 1600 record with his 4:46.  Eterno could threaten the 4:45 mark that has lasted too long as top soph mark.

In the 800 Amiri leads again with his impressive 1:58.1.  This is the 2nd fastest indoor time of the last 7 years.  He'll be shooting for current Augustana runner Chris Madison's 600 record on Thursday.  Jason Shaughnessy has also been impressive, already dropping a 2:05 split... over 5 seconds faster than his PR a year ago.

At the top of the 600 list is Ross Netzel, a 400 specialist that has dipped his toes into the mid distance arena a couple times already.  He'll be running the shorter races at PW this week, but will be a part of the 4x8 at Mustang Relays and may see some more action in the 600 before indoor comes to an end.

With a few weeks to go until conference, the DGS crew is starting to look pretty fit.  We are definitely looking to collect our share of points at the WSC Gold meet at Willowbrook. 

Go Mustangs!