DGS Places 2nd at Season Opening Triangular

The season kicked off this week with a home triangular meet against #9 Naperville Central and conference rival Hinsdale South. The night kicked off with the F/S race. While the Redhawks dominated the team competition with the first 6 finishers and a 15 point score, we had a great start to the season with a lot of guys clearly illustrating how a summer of hard work pays off. Ben Tunney led the way placing 7th overall and moving up well throughout the race to run a great opening 3 mile time of 17:28. Our 2nd finisher was freshman Joey Puccillo who ran an aggressive race and showed a ton of guts battling near the front throughout the race. His 17:41 is one of the better starting points we've seen from a freshmen over the last 12 years. Our remaining scorers were Colin Meyer, Luc Alvarez, and Nick Moutelle. Ultimately, DGS finished behind NCHS, but well in front of the Hornets with our 10th runner finishing in front of their 2nd. DGS had 10 athletes finish in the top 25 including Caleb Deboer who stood out as one athlete that has been working extremely hard over the past year and started this season with a fantastic personal best.

The varsity race could not have been a better contest, particularly with the battle up front between DGS and NCHS. Edwin Siuda raced up front from the start against Central's Thomas Shilgalis whose resume includes winning the Twilight Meet last year and posting 800/1600 times of 1:51/4:08 on the track this spring. Siuda hung with him until about the last 3/4 of a mile where Shilgalis gradually pulled away for the win and the 3rd fastest time ever recorded at O'Brien Park. DGS had the next 3 finishers with Siuda, James Weigel, and John Norris placing 2nd-4th. Weigel and Norris both looked really strong starting the season with lifetime bests. The 4th man for the Mustangs was Canyon Stage who ran really well to place 8th in 16:12 (also a PR). Matt Peloso was 11th overall as the 5th man for DGS with a big PR of 16:20. In the end, DGS and NCHS both had 28 points, however, Central ultimately won the race based on their 6th runner finishing ahead of ours. Many other Mustangs opened their season with great races. Jay Wiseman, Mike Sadowski, and Carlos Mendez in particular looked really strong and ran lifetime bests to start things off. Also notable, junior Stephen Nicholson made his XC debut and placed 21st in 16:52.

Next up for the Mustangs is a dual meet on the 27th against Addison Trail.