Chargers finish sixth in Midwest Regional, Humes advances

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Chargers finish sixth in Midwest Regional, Humes advances
Senior Joey Humes races to the finish at Knight Invitational. (Calli Townsend | Collegian)

Predicted to finish eighth at the Midwest Regional meet, the Hillsdale College Chargers came out strong to beat the rankings and capture sixth place as a team. Saturday’s race was a 10k, which is a jump up from the 8k the team has been running all season. 

Grand Valley State University took first place overall with 52 points and Michigan Tech University came in second with 116 points. Walsh University took fourth place and was the only G-MAC team to beat the Chargers. 

“All you can do is expect to bring your best race at the end of the season, and for those guys, they did, so it was good,” assistant coach R.P. White said.

Senior Joey Humes punched his ticket for the NCAA Division II National meet as he qualified individually. He finished in fourth place overall with a time of 31:24.5. That is his PR for a 10k and is the second-fastest time ever to be run in the G-MAC.

After improving by a minute and a half at the conference meet two weeks ago, junior Morgan Morrison continued to improve with a new PR in the 10k of 32:31.5. He earned 26th place overall.

With back-to-back finishes, junior Mark Miller and sophomore Adam Wier worked together to finish 30th and 31st, respectively. Miller finished in 32:44.5, while Wier set a new PR of 32:48.6.

“The showing we had was really, really strong through our one through four runners,” White said. “We were just dealing with some sickness and some guys had never run a 10,000 meter cross country race before and that kind of showed its face. But I thought across the board, the guys did a phenomenal job.”

Wier said he didn’t have the race he was hoping to have, but was still proud of his and his team’s effort. 

“The goal was to grab an all-regional spot, but I gave all the effort I could and just ended up being a little short,” he said. “I think that also applies to our team coming out of the meet. We all wanted to qualify for nationals badly, but the results just ended up not going in our favor. Every man in Hillsdale gear out there was giving 100% effort though, and that’s all you can do.”

Freshman Mark Sprague managed to stay calm under pressure as he competed in his first ever 10k and collegiate regional race. He crossed the line in 34:10.2 to take 94th overall.

Senior Alex Oquist ran his first ever 10k cross country race as well, managing a time of 35:11.3. He took 129th in his last collegiate cross country meet of his career. Junior Jack Shelley rounded out the pack for the Chargers, taking 140th overall in 25:29.0.

“I think it’s just the roll of the dice and the way some health stuff played out,” White said. “I definitely thought a top five finish would’ve been doable for this squad.”