The women’s cross country team took 6th at the 6k Lucian Rosa Invite in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Oct. 8th. Having competed in a tough race the prior weekend, the women approached this race with some reservation.

“The girls executed our race plan well,” coach R.P. White said. “We raced extremely hard in Louisville the previous weekend, so the objective was to start conservatively, stay packed together and race home hard the final mile.”

According to sophomore Liz Wamsley, the course was extremely difficult to run.

“The course has a lot of rolling hills and one long, steep hill right at the start of the course,” Wamsley said. “It’s certainly a gritty one.”

Junior Meg Scheske finished first for Hillsdale, taking 22nd overall with a time of 22:38. Junior Gwynne Riley followed close behind, finishing 25th overall with a time of 22:44. Riley and Wamsley finished almost simultaneously, with Wamsley taking 26th only .51 seconds after Riley. 

“My favorite moment was about half way through the race when I caught up to my teammates and ran with them as a pack,”Wamsely said.” The hardest part was when we got to the back portion of the race which has constant rolling hills all the way to the finish.”

Sophomore Natalie Martinson finished fourth for Hillsdale, taking 41st overall with a time of 23:16. 

“The best moment of the race was sticking together as a pack for the first few miles,” Martinson said. “It was fun to get to run alongside all of my teammates, because we’re usually much more spread out during a race.”

As the women prepare for the upcoming championship races, the workouts are beginning to change, White said.

“We are continuing to make some of our workouts longer,” White said. “The overall mileage is essentially plateauing but the amount of volume within each workout is increasing. Other than that, we need to emphasize rest, recovery and managing our time so we can perform in the classroom as well as on the cross country course.”

Wamsley said one of her goals for the end of the season involves improving upon her performance from last year.

“Team goals for this season focus on improving from last year in every race we run, especially GMACs and Regionals,” Wamsley said. “We also are trying to keep a mindset of constant growth and goal-setting throughout the season and always looking for ways to be more competitive,” Wamsley said.