The Hillsdale Chargers traveled to East Lansing last weekend and returned knowing at least one thing: they’ve improved.
At the unscored Spartan Invitational on Sept. 13, the majority of the men’s and women’s teams dropped their times from last year’s Michigan State meet — in many cases, dramatically.
Through mild temperatures and some wind, sophomore Kristina Galat led the women at East Lansing, finishing 14th in a time of 22:08. Out front for the men’s team, junior Josh Mirth finished 13th overall in 25:08
Last season at the Sparty Invite, senior Victoria McCaffrey finished first for the Hillsdale women at 79th overall.
This season they finished six in the top 75.
All the women but one ran personal records for MSU’s course. On average, each runner dropped her time by a minute, women’s head coach Andrew Towne said.
“It wasn’t just one person doing well – it was everyone pulling through,” Galat said.
Freshman Molly Oren ran unattached, as the NCAA had yet to clear her for Division II competition. She finished 26th, which would have put her at second for the team, in a time of 22:39.
McCaffrey’s 29th place officially took Hillsdale’s second spot. She was followed by sophomore Emily Oren (31st), sophomore Kate Royer (37th), and senior Chelsea Kilgore (68th).
Molly Oren was cleared for competition on Sept. 16. With her addition to the team along with fellow freshman Julie Bos, who sat out Friday’s meet with a minor injury, Towne expects the team to only get stronger.
Towne said he thought Galat had the performance of the meet. The team, overall, was “way more aggressive than last year.”
“It was a sign of how we’re maturing and how we’re a little more experienced this year,” Towne said.
The men also improved on their MSU performance from last season: four Chargers ran faster than 26:00, and another seven broke 27:00.
“It was the best I’ve ever seen the team run,” junior Joshua Mirth said.
Not far behind him were fellow juniors Luke Hickman, Matt Perkins, and Jack Butler. They finished 15th, 37th, and 43rd, respectively.
Both Mirth and men’s head coach Jeff Forino agreed Butler had the break-out performance of the meet. Butler ran nearly a minute and a half faster than he did at last year’s MSU race.
“He’s been a little inconsistent in years past,” Mirth said. “It was good to see him up where he should be.”
Four freshman runners broke 27:00 — times more likely for upperclassmen to run than freshman, coach Jeff Forino said.
“As long as the freshman take care of themselves, they’ll be right in the mix for our four, five, and six places,” Forino said.
The next meet will be at Notre Dame University on Oct. 4. That means the runners have three weeks between meets – the longest space between races all season.
The runners will get in their last heavy volume weeks of the season before Notre Dame, then pull back on their mileage once they get into championship season.
