DGS has genuinely high quality facilities, except for the indoor track. It’s old, broken down and just plain bizarre. Replacing it should be a top priority in the 2020s.

The main issue with the indoor track is that it has the strangest turns of any track. Instead of the turns being curved, they’re almost rectangular, which causes the turns to be extremely awkward and tight. It’s a massive slow down for runners and it’s quite frustrating.

Another issue is that it’s a 160m track. While this isn’t a major sin, the fact that the track has such odd dimensions makes it that much worse. No sane runner wants to run a mile, or ten laps, on the track sent from Lucifer.

It’s like the designers of the track had to fit in the field house and ran out of room about halfway through the process. The whole thing just feels cramped and out of place. Compared to some other indoor tracks in the area, it’s abominable.

The track also is extremely worn down over years of use. Most tracks feel bouncy to some extent, but not this one. It feels as though one is sinking down into the great depths with every laborious step.

What is truly strange is that DGN has a very similar track. It’s almost like the two schools teamed up to create the two worst tracks in the universe. Perhaps the tracks were a sacrifice to the running gods for 100 years of Downers Grove running success.

Surrounding schools in the area also have great indoor tracks. Proviso East and York, both of which are in the West Suburban conference, have high quality indoor tracks which allows them to host large meets that attract great competition. Renovating the indoor track would allow DGS to do the same; currently, DGS hosts zero indoor track meets that are actually at the school.

DGS has some truly state of the art facilities and should strive to do so in all facets of the school. It should be a constant goal to keep improving and renovating for the best student experience, and getting a new indoor track would go a long way in achieving this goal.