When the Hillsdale College women’s cross country team traveled to Olivet College for the Comet Open, a 5k race that the women said they planned to treat as a practice run. 

According to head coach R. P. White, the team  achieved that goal, and is now charged up for the next meet of the season.

“It was kind of a formality, just getting our feet wet per se,” White said. “We had a conservative approach up front.” 

The course, according to sophomore Liz Wamsley, was fairly easy to run.

“It was pretty flat. There was one section that went through the woods that was not quite a full mile. That was the roughest the terrain ever got.”

Half of the top twelve finishers were Chargers. Wamsley took second place with a time of 18:47. Junior Gwynne Riley followed close behind, taking third with a time of 18:53. Junior Meg Scheske finished fifth with a time of 19:11.

“Really across the board all the girls closed really hard,” White said. “That was the goal going in and they thought they executed it really well.”

Sophomore Vera Thompson finished 6th with a time of 19:28. Junior Natalie Martinson and sophomore Brynn Edison scored one after the other. Martinson took 11th, finishing at 20:07. Edison followed behind, finishing 12th at 20:21.

Wamsley said one of her favorite parts of the race was running close to her teammates.

“About halfway through, we were all in the same block sticking together at the same pace and I just really liked that and was very excited for future races because it was nice to be working with the team for the same goal,” Wamsley said.

One of her other favorite moments, she said, was when the team broke from their steady pace toward the end and allowed themselves to speed up.

“I just found that very exciting because I got to be competitive there,” Wamsley said.

On Sept. 7, the G-MAC chose Liz Wamsley for Cross Country Athlete of the week, adding another victory on to her second-place win from the weekend.

Having officially kicked off the season with their first race, the team will soon work together to elect team captains and set goals for the rest of the season.

Next weekend, the Chargers will race in the Calvin Knight Classic at Calvin University on Sept. 10 at 10 a.m.