Men’s XC takes 4th overall at Lucian Rosa Invite

Home Charger Cross Country Men’s XC takes 4th overall at Lucian Rosa Invite
The men’s cross country team begins a race in 2020
Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department

The Hillsdale Chargers men’s cross country team placed fourth at the Lucian Rosa Invite in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Saturday. 

The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs University Mountain Lions took first place with 19 points, followed by Minnesota State College with 89, and University of Wisconsin Parkside, who finished third with 95 points. The Chargers 96 points earned them fourth place. 

Leading the Chargers once again was junior Adam Weir. Weir finished 10th overall with a time of 26:12. Following behind him was freshman Alex Mitchell, who came in 16th with a 26:37 time.

“We were a lot more confident and assertive this time around.” Mitchell said, “The first race was kind of a rust buster but this past weekend our confidence helped us to execute our plan a lot better.”

The third Charger to cross the finish line was sophomore Mark Sprague. Sprague finished the race at the 26:49 mark, which was over a minute faster than his previous race, and earned him 19th place overall. Sprague was positive about his team’s performance.

“I thought the team did a great job adjusting to a more difficult course, with worse heat and dust as well.” Sprague said, “We saw improved times from the last meet, so we were happy with the results and completed our goal of taking a step forward. I thought we did a good job executing our game plan.”

In their second race as Chargers, freshmen Donnie McArdle and Ross Kuhn both saw improvement from the Calvin race. McArdle finished 25th with a time of 27:06, and Kuhn was right behind him in 26th with a 27:09 time. 

Closing out the race for Hillsdale was sophomore Sean Hoeft and freshman Micah Vanderkooi. Hoeft finished 32nd overall with a time of 27:38, while Vanderkooi finished at the 28:30 mark, earning him 53rd place. 

“I really liked how aggressive we were in the opening 2 miles,” Coach R.P White said about the Chargers second race of the season. “We didn’t back down to a very good team from Colorado Springs. We look to improve our gap time from our 1-5 runners and continue gaining experience for the young guys.”

The Chargers will either be running at the Joe Piane Invitational in Notre Dame, Indiana or the Lansing Community College Invitational in Lansing, Michigan on October 1. They will then have three weeks in between those meets and then G-MAC Championships in Cedarville, OH on October 23.