
The Hillsdale College men’s and women’s cross country teams kicked off their 2020 season on Saturday, Sept. 12 at their home course in Hayden Park. With senior Maryssa Depies leading the women, the Chargers finished first, leaving a promising first impression for the rest of the abbreviated season. On the men’s side, junior Adam Wier led the way with an eighth-place finish to help his team finish third.
On the women’s side, six teams from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference showed up for the Hillsdale Invitational. The Chargers won by a 14-point margin with Cedarville University finishing second with 56 points and Walsh University in a close third with 59 points. These top three teams were the same top three in last season’s conference championship meet, which Hillsdale won by a narrow three points.
“I thought it was solid to good, same as the guys, they hadn’t raced in a while,” head coach Andrew Towne said. “I thought the women ran pretty solid.”
Depies finished third with a time of 22:22, a strong performance on Hayden Park’s infamous hills.
“I think overall people felt like it was a rust buster just because it’s been so long since we’ve raced, but it was really fun to be back,” Depies said. “Racing was painful and a bit of a shock to the body, but it was also a confidence boost to see where we’re at in the conference.”
Next up in Charger blue was junior Sophia Maeda finishing fifth in 22:53 and senior Christina Sawyer in seventh in 23:04.
Junior Claire McNally and sophomore Meg Scheske paired up to place 12th and 13th in 23:18 and 23:21, respectively.
Making her college debut with a solid performance was freshman Liz Wamsley who finished 17th overall in 23:39.
“Our Excellence award went to Wamsley,” Towne said. “She ran a really nice race for a freshman.”
Rounding out the pack was senior Megan Poole. After battling sickness and injuries the last few years, Poole is looking strong for her final season as a Charger. She finished in 23rd with a time of 23:59, which is a new personal best time.
Depies said the team wasn’t expecting speedy times as White has been focusing on building a strong foundation for the rest of the season.
“We haven’t done any speed training yet and he’s really trying to ramp up things, so we weren’t really ready to race,” Depies said. “None of us felt good going into the race, but that was intentional.”
On the men’s side, with 22 points, Walsh University captured first, beating the second-place Malone University who had 44. Hillsdale took third with 72 points, while the University of Findlay finished fourth with 111.
“We struggled a bit, but hopefully we’ll take some lessons from that and drastically improve in three weeks at Tiffin,” Towne said. “It was good to be back at it, I mean, it’s been a while. Certainly there was some rust, but that’s true for everybody so I’m looking forward to getting another go in three weeks and getting a better view of who we actually are.”
Wier finished eighth overall in 26:49, followed by a senior Mark Miller and sophomore Mark Sprague in 15th and 17th, respectively. Miller, after dealing with a bit of injury, crossed the line in 27:25 with Sprague close behind in 27:29.
“I was happy to get the first race out of the way but was a little frustrated because I wanted to perform better and we have pretty big goals for later in the season so it was a good first race to shake the rust off, but personally I wanted to do better,” Wier said.
The Chargers are sporting a rather young team this year, as four of the top seven runners are underclassmen. One of those underclassmen is freshman Alex Mitchell, who placed 22nd overall and fourth in the Chargers’ lineup. He finished in 27:52 in his first collegiate race.
Sophomore Sean Hoeft is moving up in the ranks as he came in 26th overall with a time of 28:01. He was followed by senior Morgan Morrison who was also battling a bit of injury, but still came in 29th in 28:13, and sophomore Isaac Waffle who finished 31st in 28:44.
“We’ve got a lot of energy in the younger guys. We have four freshmen this year and four sophomores from last year,” Wier said. “They bring a lot of energy to the team so it’s not too much of a challenge at all.”
Next on the schedule, Hillsdale will travel to Tiffin, Ohio, for the Tiffleburg Invite on Friday, Oct. 2. This race will be on the course for the future G-MAC Championship meet to be held on Oct. 24. As for now, the team will continue racing only against other G-MAC schools in preparation for that championship.
The 2020 cross-country season, while shortened, only began a week later than normal. The next month and a half will be a regular schedule with the team competing every three weeks, ending with the G-MAC Conference Championship meet on Oct. 24. As for now, Hillsdale will only be racing schools within the G-MAC.
“It’d be nice to race other people, but for my senior year I wasn’t even sure if I’d get a season, so I’m grateful,” Depies said.
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