The Hillsdale College men's cross country team made quite the turnaround on Friday from last month's third-place finish at the Hillsdale Invitational. Against the same conference opponents that beat them at home on Sept. 12 the Chargers captured first place at the Tiffelberg Invitational, edging out Walsh University by just three points for the title.
The Chargers scored 47 points, while Walsh finished with 50, and the University of Findlay came in third with 81. This was on the Seneca Hills Golf Club in Tiffin, Ohio, the same place as the future G-MAC Conference Championship meet in a few weeks, where the Chargers will look to replicate, if not improve upon, this performance.
Junior Adam Wier and senior Mark Miller finished 1-2 in the 8K race in 25:40.8 and 25:25.2, respectively. Miller's second-place finish was key in securing a Hillsdale victory. He beat out Walsh's Chandler Wilhelm by just 0.6 seconds.
Sophomore Mark Sprague was the only other Charger to finish in the top 10 in tonight's 8k race. He finished with a time of 26:28.4.
Fellow sophomore Isaac Waffle came in 14th in 26:45.2, which is only 20 seconds off of his personal best time, which he earned in last year's conference championship meet.
Freshman Alex Mitchell is working his way up in the rankings, as he finished fifth for the Chargers and 20th overall. He improved upon last month's time by nearly a minute, finishing in 26:53.4.
Right behind Mitchell was senior Morgan Morrison, who after battling a bit of injury back in September, finished in 26:56.7, which is almost a minute and a half better than his last race. He finished 22nd overall.
Rounding out the pack was freshman Aidan Murtagh who took 31st place with a new PR of 27:41.0. He beat his previous PR by more than a minute.
The Chargers will look to repeat this first-place performance on Oct. 24 at the G-MAC Conference Championship meet. Last year they finished second place as a team, just 11 points behind Walsh University. This could be a chance for them to capture a conference title in cross country for the first time since 2011.
Written by Calli Townsend
Photo: Chargers Adam Wier (1487) and Mark Miller (1480) battle for the lead during Friday's race. Photo by Josh Burkholder, Tiffin University.