For the fourth time in school history, the women’s team will compete in the NCAA national meet after they finished third at regionals last weekend. The men’s team finished eighth.
The women will travel to Spokane, Wash., next week where they will compete against the top 32 Division II schools in the country. A national poll ranks the Hillsdale women at 15th after the regional meet.
“We definitely showed what kind of team we are, but I don’t think that’s the best we can do,” sophomore Emily Oren said. “I do think we have more to show. We just haven’t had that race yet.”
Oren led the women, finishing 16th in 22:10. Fellow sophomore Kristina Galat came in just two seconds later: 18th place in 22:12. Both women finished on the all-region team, which goes to the top-25 runners.
The next three came in within eight seconds of each other: freshmen Julia Boss and Molly Oren, then senior captain Victoria McCaffrey.
Boss finished in 30th after running 22:35, and Molly Oren, 33rd, ran a time of 22:41.
Saturday’s third extended McCaffrey’s collegiate running career for two more weeks. While the senior runner still has track eligibility, she’ll head to D.C. to do WHIP her last Hillsdale semester.
“I’m happy for it to end this way,” McCaffrey said. “For them it’s the beginning of some very excellent careers.”
She finished 35th place in 22:43.
The team’s top-5 runners crossed the finish line within 33 seconds of each other. The team’s pack-running helps a lot, Oren said.
“If they’re right there, you have to catch them,” Oren said.
Coach Andrew Towne said the women ran a solid race, but not their best. The women runners shared similar sentiments. Their best race still, hopefully, lies ahead of them.’
“They [the Hillsdale women] realize that we’ve evolved into a team not just trying to race at the national championship, but one that wants to run well there,” Towne said.
The men’s team entered the meet with high hopes for the national meet. But with the exceptions of junior Jack Butler and freshman Joe Newcomb, Hillsdale’s runners ran flat, according to coach Jeff Forino. They finished 8th in the meet.
“Disappointed might be too strong of a word, but its in the right direction,” Butler said. “We all felt that we all could have done better and should have done better.”
Butler led Hillsdale’s runners with 800 meters to go. A Wayne State University runner tripped him up, however, and he tumbled to the ground, cutting his arm, leg, and back. He got up and kept running, but was unable to catch back up to the Wayne runner.
Junior Joshua Mirth, who was the sole representative of Hillsdale College at last year’s national meet, kicked Butler down with 100 meters left and finished first for the Chargers in 38th at a time of 32:38. Butler followed two spots and four seconds later.
Newcomb, 51st, finished next in 32:55, and junior Luke Hickman, 63rd, and freshman Luke Daigneault, 80th, rounded out Hillsdale’s top five.
A lower leg injury knocked junior Matt Perkins off of Saturday’s roster. This is the second year in a row injury kept him from competing at regionals. Senior captain Matt Van Egmond replaced him.
Although the team ran short of what they wanted this year, Van Egmond said it still marked an improvement from last year.
“Last year we had to have a great day to place 9th at regionals,” Van Egmond said. “This year we had a poor day and placed 8th. We’re on a different level physically than we were last year.”
Unlike McCaffrey, Van Egmond will run track for Hillsdale next semester. This does mark the end of this cross-country year, however.
“I sat back at the end of the season and really tried to appreciate being part of everything,” he said. “It wasn’t the greatest day to go out on, but I’ve enjoyed it along the way.”
Although the 2013 season ended somewhere near disappointing, Butler said he’s optimistic for the future.
“Now that we’ve shifted into our new competition paradigm, I’m optimistic about what happens next,” he said.
