The spring season is almost at a close with the track teams heading into the state qualifiers, while tennis has regional and sectional competitions coming up as well. (Events covered: May 7-12)
Boys Track
The Mustangs ride into Thursday’s state qualifying meet at Northwest a week after hosting the Little Hawkeye conference meet, placing fifth after winning a handful of events to boost their stance in the state rankings — done entirely with team efforts.
With a new top time of 58.16 seconds, the group of Chase Heitland, Kolby Carpenter, Jordan Kalk and Darien Walker moved up to fourth in the Class 4A rankings. Last year’s state meet team placed 10th.
Similarly, the 4×800 team with Eli Oberrueter, Sam Mora, Harper Gessmann and Jack Meggison won their conference crown. While it wasn’t their PR, their most recent time is still a top-15 mark. Last year’s group placed seventh at state.
Not to be diminished as a runner-up, Elias Arbuckle moves into the final week of the season with great expectations. He set his 3,200-meter PR just a couple of weeks ago that ranks fifth in Class 4A. He finished ninth last season with a 12-second slower time.
And looking to get the Mustangs back into the 110 hurdles, Darien Walker placed second at the conference meet and is currently ranked in the top 10 in the class.
Overall, DCG has 13 events ranked inside the top 30, giving an inside track to top last year’s 11 qualifying events.
Girls Track
DCG claimed third place as hosts for this year’s conference meet on Thursday, flexing their muscle with five solo wins.
Notably, Piper Messerly rose to the top in both the 1,500 and 3,000-meter runs, along with winning the distance medley with Chloe Wanat, Anna Bahnsen and Leighton Stanford. Messerly ranks No. 2 in both of her solo events among Class 4A, looking primed for a surge at the state meet where she placed 15th and 10th last year as a freshman.
Stanford broke a school record previously held by Jill Ziskovsky, clocking 1:04.94 in the 400-meter hurdles, but Indianola’s record-setter got in the way of first place. And Stanford was also involved in a new conference meet record in the 4×800 with Madalyn Schmitz, Maddy Stevens and Addison Dooley. The latter two went 1-2 in the 800-meter run as well.
With Stevens and Dooley ranked inside the top 10 in the 800 as well, the Mustangs ride into Thursday’s state qualifiers with several targets on their back. Last year, the Mustangs made the cut in 10 events. This year, DCG is ranked inside the top 30 in 11 events, putting them in a position to send a bigger group to Drake.
Boys Soccer (10-2-3)
Closing the regular season this week, the Mustangs earned a bye with the top overall substate seed in Class 3A. They’ll take on the winner of Belmond-Klemme and Iowa Falls-Alden to start their state title defense.
Girls Soccer (8-4-1)
A pair of shutout wins against ranked teams has the Mustangs right side up again after last week’s loss to Waverly-Shell Rock.
DCG dominated No. 10 Bondurant-Farrar with a 7-0 win on May 8 and on Monday, stopped a rising No. 9 ADM with a 3-0 win. While the boys team wrapped its regular season, the girls team has two games left this coming week before the postseason begins.
Girls Golf
The Mustangs placed fifth as a team during Monday’s Little Hawkeye meet. Sophomore Joey Moberg made it onto the all-conference team for the second season in a row, leading the team with an 87 to place sixth overall with her season-best score.
Girls Tennis
With the regular season wrapped, the Mustangs will host Lewis Central on Friday to open regionals. Last season, DCG lost 5-2 to Waukee in the first round.
Boys Tennis
Wednesday’s district singles and doubles were played prior to publishing deadlines this week. The team will travel to Northwest to take on Waukee for the substate first round, looking to advance for the first time in program history.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: DCG girls soccer picks up shutout wins, track teams host conference meet
Reporting by Sean Cordy / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
