(Guthrie Center) The ACGC girls track team recorded 18 season bests in their last meet.
The Chargers placed 6th in a strong field at Van Meter Thursday. “As a team that really emphasizes growth it was really cool to see so many of the girls improve their times and so many of the relays improve. Then we had quite a few PR’s in the field events as well. Overall it was a really successful night for our personal bests and season bests.”
Coach Colin Shawgo’s lineup had a couple of welcome additions after the school’s Washington DC trip. Many of the teams they faced last week were Class 3A teams. “It’s vital to what we want to do as a program. When we compete against some of these 3A schools, it prepares us mentally for when we face 1A schools. Even at the Griswold meet we faced two of the best 1A schools in the state with Fremont-Mills and Riverside. These girls have not really had a night off from stout competition and it’s exciting to see them go up against some of those teams and compete well against them. For example, our 4X800 team was able to beat a fairly good Winterset team and afterwards they were over the moon about it. It builds our confidence, it makes us better, and it builds our competitive spirit.”
On Tuesday ACGC will participate in the Earlham meet. They’ll be focused continued growth. “The goal is to get to state and compete well at the State Qualifying Meet. The girls understand that in order to do that we have to keep grinding and keep getting better. Growth doesn’t just happen over night. It takes a lot of effort over a long period of time.”
ACGC coach Colin Shawgo:
