After their recent performances at the Joe Paine and Lansing Community College invitationals, the Hillsdale College Chargers are on track for a successful conference championship race in a couple weeks.
The team split up and competed at two different meets on Oct. 4. A group of seven traveled to the University of Notre Dame while five others competed in Lansing, MI. Three Chargers set new personal records and many more are hovering around their best times. With championship season around the corner, they’re peaking at just the right time.
At Notre Dame, Hillsdale was the only NCAA Division II team to place in the top 15, finishing 11th overall. Cal. State Fullerton, Miami of Ohio, and Clemson University took the top three spots, respectively. Nearly 200 runners from 24 different schools competed in this 5k race.
“They were in a very competitive race when you talk about teams like Valparaiso, Clemson, and LSU, really big Division I schools, and I thought we did a really nice job,” assistant coach R.P. White said. “We knew that the race was going to go out crazy fast and up until that point we haven’t done anything super fast in practice so you could tell they’re in a really good spot from a strength standpoint, now we just need to fine tune some things.”
Senior Arena Lewis and junior Maryssa Depies both ran near their personal best times, taking 42nd and 43rd, respectively. Lewis finished in 17:58.65, earning the G-MAC Cross Country Athlete of the Week award. For Depies, this was her first race of the season after dealing with an injury, and she finished in 17:59.52.
Beating her PR from her freshman year, junior Christina Sawyer finished 52nd overall with a time of 18:06.8. Her previous personal best time was 18:11.7 from the beginning of her college career.
After finishing her freshman year placing fifth in the conference in the 5k for outdoor track, sophomore Claire McNally carried that momentum into Friday’s race. She beat her previous PR by nearly a minute with a time of 18:16.9 which put her in 71st place.
“I went out fast exactly like coach told us to and I still felt good the second mile, I felt like I still had more to give,” McNally said. “I just started picking it up more and passing people, and it was just a good day. I think it’s that point in our training where we’ve started to taper so my body is actually starting to feel good and I’m able to run fast.”
White said McNally’s performance was comparable to a 5k on a smooth, flat track.
“She was close to her track PR, and when you talk about doing that out on the grass, she’s a different person than she was a year ago,” White said.
Freshman Meg Scheske was two seconds off her PR from high school as she finished in 96th place in 18:37.14. Right behind her was sophomore Sophia Maeda who took 106th in 18:42.27.
Senior Addison Rauch came in 134th in an impressive field of mostly Division I athletes. Her time of 19:02.51 was just a half second shy of her PR from her freshman year. She’s on pace to end her collegiate career on a strong note.
At the Lansing Community College Invitational, the Chargers took second place to Oakland University, an NCAA Division I school. Oakland had 44 points, Hillsdale had 69, and third-place Siena Heights University had 115.
The duo of freshman Gwynne Riley and senior Kate Vanderstelt led the way for the Chargers. They finished 11th and 12th, respectively. Riley’s time of 19:08.5 beat her previous PR of 19:18.8. Vanderstelt finished right near her personal best as well, in 19:10.4.
Freshman Natalie Martinson came in 25th overall with a time of 19:35.9, while sophomore Amber Mango took 29th in 19:41.5. Rounding out the pack for the Chargers was junior Megan Poole who came in 34th with a time of 19:53.4.
“It was a strong showing on the girls side. We need to be able to put together a whole team effort that’s probably more similar to what we did at Calvin moving forward into the conference championship, regionals, and nationals,” White said. “I think the biggest takeaway from Notre Dame and LCC was that we know there’s some areas we can improve and we’re confident we can fix those things.”
The Chargers will travel to Pepper Pike, Ohio, for the G-MAC Conference Championship on Oct. 26. Hillsdale is currently ranked No. X in the nation, ahead of all other conference competitors.
“We have a lot of really talented people on the team this year,” McNally said. “They’re people who work really hard and I know everybody on the team is committed and really excited and want to do well.”
