Hillsdale’s cross-country season officially begins tomorrow, Sept. 14, in East Lansing, Mich.
But last week the coaches ran their athletes against each other in an intrasquad time trial.
On Sept. 7, Hayden Park played host to the Blue-White meet, the second intramural competition in three weeks for both men’s and women’s cross country teams. Both ran 5000-meter races.
Assistant coach Amanda Mirochna said the time trial went well.
“Both teams have really good front packs that we were kind of missing last year,” she said.
The women raced first at 5 p.m.
They quickly separated into two groups; senior Victoria McCaffrey, freshman Emily Oren, and freshman Kristina Galat led the way while their teammates followed in a second pack.
The front three stayed tight until Galat pulled away in the last quarter of the second mile then distanced herself from Oren and the three remained close to equally apart the rest of the race.
Galat won in 18:49.77 followed by McCaffrey (19:15.35), Oren (19:43.79), sophomore Amy Kerst (20:29.33), and freshman Sarah Johnson (20:32.76).
Andrew Towne, head women’s coach, said he thought that, for not having outside competition, the women competed well.
The men raced next.
As is his custom, freshman Paul Ausum started the race hard, pulling a full 20 meters ahead of his teammates by the time he reached the top of Hayden Park’s first hill.
Sophomore trio Joshua Mirth, Matt Perkins, and Luke Hickman overtook Ausum by the first mile-marker and continued running stride-for-stride until the third mile.
Hickman dropped off, Perkins kicked, and Mirth kicked harder.
Mirth won the race in 15:51.88, followed by Perkins (16:02.55), Hickman (16:08.74), freshman John Bell (16:32.35), and Ausum (16:36.04).
“Pretty much every workout it’s us three up in a front pack,” Mirth said. “Sometimes [senior captain] Matt VanEgmond or someone else will stick in there too, but usually [it’s] the three of us. The order varies.”
Jeff Forino, men’s head coach, singled out Bell as having an especially good race for the freshman. He said he was pleased with the team’s effort as a whole.
Both teams travel to Forest Akers golf course in East Lansing, Mich., tomorrow, Sept. 14, for the Auto Owners Spartan Invitational.