Junior Ally Kuzma at the G-MAC Conference Championship Nov. 7.

Nicole Nemeth | Tiffin Athletics

Junior Ally Kuzma defended her Great Midwest Athletic Conference individual title Nov. 7, winning the 2026 Women’s Cross Country Championship for the second year in a row as the women’s team finished third overall at the meet.

“I was definitely excited to get the title a second time, and happy to have a confidence boost going into regionals,” Kuzma said.

Kuzma, the 2025 champion and 2026 G-MAC Runner of the Year, won by nearly 40 seconds with a 6K time of 20:57.20 at the conference meet in Tiffin, Ohio. 

Senior Eleanor Clark earned her second consecutive first-team All-G-MAC honor with an eighth place finish. Sophomore Mavis Banks earned a personal best at the meet with a 17th-place finish. Banks also earned second team All-G-MAC honors for the first time. 

The women’s team scored 85 points to finish third overall, behind champion Cedarville University and just 10 points behind runner-up Ashland University.

Meanwhile, the men’s team finished with 150 points in sixth place, defeating Northwood University in a tiebreaker. Sophomore John Richardson led Hillsdale with a 17th-place finish, earning second team All-G-MAC honors in the process with a time of 24:49, a new collegiate best at the 8K distance.

Junior Will Winsor took 28th in 25:10.60, a 16-second improvement on his previous personal best, while sophomore Jefferson Regitz placed 29th in 25:13.10, also a collegiate best.

Kuzma previously broke the G-MAC cross country 5K record on Oct. 2 and won the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s NCAA DII Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week Sept. 14. Despite her accomplishments, she said that she was still nervous going into the meet. 

“It was my first time racing this course, but it was definitely an experience,” Kuzma said. “It reminded me of a high school course. I tried to get up in front and stick with the pack. I definitely think it was more crowded towards the back, and it would have been a little bit more of a challenge when you were in a bigger group than where I was.”

Kuzma said that she sees the team’s third place finish as a testament to Hillsdale College’s athletic excellence.

“I am happy with the team’s performance,” Kuzma said. “Hillsdale has six girls and we were able to perform third. The fact that most girls teams are 20 to 30 girls, it’s awesome that we’re so small, but we can score.”

Like Kuzma, Banks said she made sure to run ahead at the beginning to avoid being stuck in the narrow crowd in the run, and was happily surprised with her performance.

“It was really exciting because part of me didn’t think that I could have done that,” Banks said. “I didn’t really believe that that was a possibility for me. But I just went into it, like a little overconfident.”

Banks said that she needs to work on staying relaxed and confident during the races.

“I was a little scared at times,” Banks said. “Some of the hills were really hard, so if I was in a lot of pain, I would wear it on my expressions very clearly. I think if I had just relaxed a little bit, I could have maybe executed a little bit better. For the team, the biggest thing is closing the gap between our five and six girls with Ally in the front, which is hard because she’s so fast.”

Junior Will Winsor said the men’s team did not have a strategy beyond running as fast as they could and doing what the track required.

“We don’t have super distinct race plans — we just go in and try to compete,” Winsor said. “The races go out super fast sometimes. Last year I went out in 80th place at the mile. This year, I went out in the same and I was like 20th or 30th at the mile. We just tried to put ourselves in good positions at the beginning of the race and compete from there.”

Head coach Joe Lynn said he was happily surprised to see the women’s team finish third place at the conference meet, and attributed it to Kuzma’s perseverance and the team’s hard work.

“They were not predicted to finish that high,” Lynn said. “We could have still ran a little bit better across the board, but that gives us good confidence and momentum in the regionals.”

Lynn added that some competitors showed great improvement from the conference meet last year, mentioning that sophomore Mavis Banks moved up 50 spots from last year’s race.

“On the men’s side, John Richardson did a great job leading the men as he has done all year, and Will probably ran the best race he has for us,” Lynn said.

Both teams will compete at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Nov. 21. Lynn said he does not expect  an invitation to the national meet this year, but he is focusing on improving the team and making sure each runner gives the competition their best.