Expectations are high this cross-country season as the women look to claim the national team title after placing second last year and the men look to make the national meet for the first time in 11 years. The Charger women will be returning all four of last year’s All-Americans.
Men’s and women’s cross-country coach Andrew Towne said a national team trophy has always been the team’s goal.
“Four years ago, when I first said that to the women’s team, I think the girls liked hearing that, but they may have thought it was a little bit out of reach,” he said. “That is expected now.”
The women were ranked second in preseason polling, while the men fell outside of the top 25.
After a coaching shake-up at the beginning of last year, Towne believes that the team’s consistency in coaching staff will benefit the team. Last season was Towne’s first as head coach and distance coach Joe Lynn’s first year at Hillsdale.
The women’s team has returned nine runners and picked up three freshmen. The team graduated three runners last year and will especially miss Amy Kerst and Chelsea Kilgore.
The women will lean on seniors Emily Oren and Kristina Galat as well as junior Molly Oren. Emily Oren also believes that the team’s four sophomores will have a big year.
“The sophomores are doing so awesome in all their workouts this summer,” she said.
Lynn is confident in what the women can accomplish, but emphasized doing the little things that led to the team’s success last year.
“We’re just looking to take care of the process day to day,” Lynn said. “We know we’re talented and we know we’re pretty deep.”
The men’s team has returned seven runners and picked up four freshmen. The team graduated five runners last year and will especially miss All-Region runners Jack Butler, Josh Mirth, and Luke Hickman. Mirth was the men’s sole All-American last season.
The team will rely on juniors Joe Newcomb and Caleb Gatchell as well as sophomores Tony Wondaal and Sam Phillips. Junior Luke Daigneault, who was out all of last year with hip injuries, is also expected to have a solid season.
“Nationals is definitely not out of the question,” Newcomb said.
Lynn believes that although the men lost a number of top runners, they will still be competitive this season.
“We’re younger than we’ve been,” he said, “but I think we can be every bit as good as we were last year.”
The team has eight meets this year broken up into five “regular season” meets and three “championship season” meets. Although the first five meets are important, the team’s main focus will be the final three meets – the conference final, the regional meet, and the national meet.
The team also has two home meets this year, on Friday, Sept. 4 and Friday, Oct. 9. Tomorrow’s “dual meet” versus Saginaw Valley State University will be held at Hayden Park, starting at 5 p.m.
Although the coaches don’t put too much focus on what other teams are doing, the teams enjoy the competition. And, coming off of their runner-up finish at last year’s national meet, some on the women’s team are excited to be on other teams’ radar.
“We can walk into these meets with swagger,” senior Kate Royer said. “People will be afraid of us.”
According to Emily Oren, this season could see Hillsdale break Grand Valley State University’s 14-year conference championship streak and three-year national championship streak.
“We have the girls to run them down and it’s exciting because we see them at all three championship season meets,” she said.
