2025 Season Outlook - Fall Edition

Cross country is wrapping up this weekend with the state meet (congratulations to Molly O'Halloran, Sadie Reinhardt, Ari Horras, and Cora Volp for qualifying!). As it comes to a close we begin to look ahead to the 2025 Track & Field Season. 

Our team brings most of our state qualifiers back from last year after only having 5 seniors on our state roster (Kenzie Dean, Liv Hall, Shea Johnson, Avery Muller, and Audrey Ott), and we only graduated 10 of our 88 team members over all. We will be leaning on a lot of senior leadership this season (7 returning state team members) and will hopefully see big growth out of our junior group (5 returning state team members) to help us on our journey to make it back on the podium in 2025 after last year's disappointing 7th place with 40 points.

Here is a little preview of who is back and who our individual stat leaders are coming into the 2025 season.

Our sprints group brings almost everyone back, with the biggest challenge this year needing to find someone to fill Shea Johnson's shoes of being our go-to relay athlete. All of our individual events have plenty of returning talent,  and with some chemistry work that should also lead to highly competitive relays as well. This group looks to improve upon it's individual results and get back into the points in the relays this season.

Points at 2024 State Meet: 7 - Annie Smith 5th in the 200 meters, Sprint Medley 6th (Johnson, Heitzman, Smith, McCoy)

Graduated: Shea Johnson - 11 time state qualifier (4x100 relay x4, 4x200 relay x3, Sprint Medley x3, Distance Medley x1), Amaya Colon-Campos, Abby Eischeid, Shae Lage

Returning State Champions: Emily Heitzman (2023 4x100)

Returning State Qualifiers: Emily Heitzman - 11 (4x100 relay x3, 4x200 relay x3, 100 meters x2, Sprint Medley x2, 200 meters), Lauren McCoy - 4 (Sprint Medley x2, 200 meters, 4x200 relay), Annie Smith - 4 (Sprint Medley x2, 200 meters, 4x200 relay), Maddie Nagel (200 meters, 4x200 meters), Alex Gaskell (4x200 relay), Kate Nelson (4x200 relay), Franny Brooks (4x100 relay), Ellie Mead (4x100 relay)

Top 4 Returning:

• 100 meters: Emily Heitzman 12.46 (5th in school history), Lauren McCoy 12.79, Maddie Nagel 12.86, Annie Smith 13.02

• 200 meters: Annie Smith 24.98 (2nd in school history), Lauren McCoy 25.50 (5th in school history), Maddie Nagel 26.16, Emily Heitzman 26.41

Our middle distance crew bring most of the core back, only graduating a few that were in both the middle and distance crews. We do return all of our 400 meter runners from the sprint side, and should have another solid year with that core group. On the 800 side, we add some depth with transfer Greta Bergman, sophomore Ari Horras who was hurt all of last season, and freshman Maddie Cowherd. 

Points at 2024 State Meet: 5 - Lauren McCoy 6th in the 400 meters, 4x400 7th (Nagel, Brooks, Banker, McCoy)

Graduated: Liv Hall - state qualifier (4x800), Avery Muller - 2 time state qualifier (4x800 x2), Anna Schoessler

Returning State Champions: None

Returning State Qualifiers: Lauren McCoy - 4 (400 meters x2, 4x400 relay x2), Maddie Nagel - 3 (4x400 x2, 400 meters), Molly O'Halloran - 2 (4x800 x2), Elise Huegerich - 2 (4x800 x2), Katherine Banker (4x400), Alex Gaskell (4x400), Annie Smith (4x400), Sadie Reinhardt (4x800)

Top 4 Returning:

• 400 meters: Lauren McCoy 57.30 (School Record), Annie Smith 59.92, Maddie Nagel 1:00.14, Matilda Vizcarra 1:04.02

• 800 meters: Greta Bergman 2:21.15, Elise Huegerich 2:27.51, Molly O'Halloran 2:29.74, Sadie Reinhardt 2:32.00

The distance crew was one of our groups that graduated its biggest pieces, but with what we have added depth wise mentioned in the middle distance this group will be one to watch entering 2025. The most interesting race will be the 3000, as we do not return much experience at that distance.

Points at 2024 State Meet: None

Graduated: Liv Hall - 3 time state qualifier (3000 meters x3), Avery Muller

Returning State Champions: None

Returning State Qualifiers: None

Top 4 Returning:

• 1500 meters: Greta Bergman 4:42.45 (would be 5th in school history), Molly O'Halloran 5:05.58, Braelyn Gifford 5:10.43, Maddie Cowherd 5:11.61

• 3000 meters: Braelyn Gifford 10:55.16, Molly O'Halloran 11:35. 25, Elizabeth Marsh 12:16.91, Avery Prichard 12:22.16

DCHS Girl's Track & Field has a rich history of quality hurdlers that compete for state titles annually. Our shuttle hurdle crew has won 3 straight state titles, we have had 2 hurdlers score points in the last 4 years and have had at least one qualifier over the past 7 state meets for the 100 hurdles, and have had at least one qualifier in the 400 hurdles the past 4 seasons. Bringing back all 22 of the points that carried the 2024 team, our hurdlers look to make a huge impact agian in 2025.

Points at 2024 State Meet: 22 - Annie Smith 2nd and Franny Brooks 5th in the 100 hurdles, Shuttle Hurdle Champions (Smith, Brooks, Gaskell, Leman)

Graduated: Shae Lage

Returning State Champions: Alex Gaskell (Shuttle Hurdle 2022, 2023, 2024), Ruby Leman (Shuttle Hurdle 2022, 2023, 2024), Annie Smith (Shuttle Hurdle 2024), Franny Brooks (Shuttle Hurdle 2024)

Returning State Qualifiers: Ruby Leman - 5 (Shuttle x3, 100 hurdles x2), Alex Gaskell - 4 (Shuttle x3, 100 hurdles), Katherine Banker - 2 (400 hurdles x2), Annie Smith - 2 (100 hurdles, Shuttle), Franny Brooks - 2 (100 hurdles, Shuttle)

Top 4 Returning:

• 100 hurdles: Annie Smith 14.59 (2nd in school history), Franny Brooks 14.80 (5th in school history), Ruby Leman (6th in school history), Alex Gaskell (8th in school history)

• 400 hurdles: Katherine Banker 1:05.86 (2nd in school history), Franny Brooks 1:07.48 (10th in school history), Alex Gaskell 1:07.70, Matilda Vizcarra 1:09.97

Our jumpers are the only group that did not graduate any athletes last season. The deepest group in the state (especially for high jump) is back with a talented group of freshmen joining both events. Led by a core group of seniors following a disappointing 2024 state meet, the pressure is on to perform at state and possibly get the school's first jumping state champion.

Points at 2024 State Meet: 3 - Kate Nelson 6th in the High Jump

Graduated: None

Returning State Champions: None

Returning State Qualifiers: Alex Gaskell - 3 (High jump x3), Ruby Leman (Long jump), Kate Nelson (High jump), Ellie Muller (High jump), Adalyn Jones (Long Jump)

Top 4 Returning:

• High jump: Alex Gaskell 5'5 (School Record), Kate Nelson 5'4 (2nd in school history), Ellie Muller (5th in school history), Ava Groeteke & Gianna Stanfel 5'0

• Long jump: Ruby Leman 18'10 (School Record), Alex Gaskell 16'10, Kate Nelson 16'8.5, Adalyn Jones 16'4.5

Throws are the event group most impacted by graduating seniors from last year's team, with multiple time qualifiers and a multiple time scorer graduating. There is a young group with talent ready to step up and make a big impact in 2025.

Points at 2024 State Meet: 3 - Audrey Ott 6th in Discus

Graduated: Kenzie Dean - 3 time state qualifier (Shot put x3), Audrey Ott - 2 time state qualifier (Discus x2), Brooklyn Anderson

Returning State Champions: None

Returning State Qualifiers: None

Top 4 Returning:

• Discus: Nellie Johnson 104'0, Alma Drazi 102'0, Lillie Richardson 92'4, Bella Benson 91'6

• Shot put: Alma Drazi 33'11.5, Tessa Holtorf 28'1, Julia Timmins 28'0.5, Lillie Richardson 27'8