Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
The Hillsdale College Women’s Cross Country team took 3rd place at the G-MAC Championships on Oct. 23.
Sophomore Liz Wamsley finished 3rd overall with a time of 21:47.9, followed by juniors Meg Scheske and Gwynne Riley. Scheske and Riley finished 15th and 16th overall, with times of 22:26.6 and 22:26.9, respectively.
Freshman Abby Scherer, who finished 25th overall, said the team approached the race with one goal in mind: winning.
“We were very gritty,” Scherer said. “It didn’t exactly happen the way we thought it would, but I think overall, the girls gave their absolute best and that’s all we could ask for.”
After the gun went off, the Chargers kept ahead, taking five out of the top ten spots.
“Our plan initially was to go out strong and I think that’s exactly what we did,” Scherer said. “We just led the race from the start.”
Wamsley, who was the first Charger to finish the race, said the race got more difficult about halfway through.
“I was with the first two runners and then they started to pick up the pace halfway and I did not have the energy to pick it up with them,” Wamsley said.
Though the race had some setbacks, the team still had successes to celebrate. Head coach Andrew Towne said Wamsley stood out to him as one of the team’s top performers during the race.
“I thought what Wamsley did was really impressive,” Towne said. “We’ve had some really good runners during my time here and she was just about as impressive as any of them, especially for such a young athlete.”
Wamsley earned First Team All-GMAC honors for her efforts in this meet.
Scherer said she was especially proud of teammate Claire McNally.
“Claire didn’t exactly have the day she wanted to have but I could just feel the competitiveness all around me when she was racing next to me,” McNally said. “I knew she was giving everything she possibly could.”
Another great part of the race, Wamsley said, was having people to cheer them on.
“There were a lot of people that came out to cheer,” Wamsley said. “It was just really great having people, especially compared to last year.”
According to Towne, the team did a good job preparing themselves to succeed.
“We preach that positioning is really key in a cross country race, and I thought the girls did a really nice job of getting out and getting in a good position to compete for a championship,” Towne said.
To prepare for NCAA regionals, scheduled for Nov. 6 in Evansville, IN, the team won’t be changing much of what they do in practice, Towne said.
“Especially with the type of performance they had this past weekend, there’s really nothing new that they need to do,” Towne said. “We’re really focused now on fine-tuning everything as we get ready for regionals.”
Scherer said while she hopes the team performs well, she also hopes each teammate puts forth her best effort.
“Qualifying for nationals is the ultimate goal, but really just having each individual runner have the best day that they can for the team,” Scherer said. “We’ve had a lot of individual runners have good days at some races, all of us need to come together and have a beautiful race together.”