At the University of Notre Dame's Joe Paine Invitational today, the Hillsdale College women's cross country team finished 11th out of 25 mostly Division I teams, such as Cal State Fullerton, Miami of Ohio, and Clemson, who all finished in the top three, respectively. More than 190 runners competed in this 5k race.
Senior Arena Lewis and junior Maryssa Depies led the way finishing together in 42nd and 43rd, respectively. Both of them ran near their personal-best times. Lewis was only one second off, as she finished in 17:58.65. Depies was 10 seconds off her PR with a time of 17:59.52, and this was only her first race of the season.
Junior Christina Sawyer put together an excellent race to finish third for the Chargers and 52nd overall. She beat her previous personal record of 18:11.7 with a new time of 18:06.80.
Another Hillsdale personal record was set by sophomore Claire McNally who let the tough competition carry her along to destroy her previous best by nearly a minute. She came in 71st place in 18:16.84. This was a highly competitive race, as six other runners finished within one second of her.
Freshman Meg Scheske was only two seconds off of her PR from high school, as she finished in the top 100 with a time of 18:37.14. Sophomore Sophia Maeda wasn't far behind in time, finishing in 18:42.27 to take 106th overall.
Rounding out the pack of Chargers was senior Addison Rauch who finished 134th in 19:02.51.
Four other Chargers — freshmen Natalie Martinson and Gwynne Riley, junior Megan Poole, and senior Kate Vanderstelt — competed at the Lansing Community College Invitational today as well. Results are yet to come.
WORDS and PHOTO: Calli Townsend