Schedule:
2020 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships, Saturday Oct. 24 | women race at 9:30 a.m. and men race at 10:15 a.m. | Seneca Hills Golf Course - Tiffin, OH
Links:
Live Results | Webcast | Championship Page | Entry List | Course Map
Information:
Top 20 finishers in each race will receive All-G-MAC honors, with top 10 finishers earning first-team honors, and G-MAC Runner, Coach and Freshman of the Year awards will also be given out...Fans will be permitted to attend through an institutional pre-purchase process for $10 each. Spectators will be asked to adhere to signage placed around the course, which includes social distancing and masking for all spectators in accordance with local and state guidelines. No additional tickets will be sold on site...Teams will also have their own respective camps near the entrance of the golf course and parking at the facility will be coordinated through Tiffin athletics department volunteers...For those unable to attend, the races will be streamed by Tiffin on the Great Midwest Digital Network (see link above)...Assorted championship merchandise will be sold on site. Debit or credit card purchases will be preferred with exchange of currency kept discouraged.
Women's Preview:
2019 G-MAC Champion Hillsdale women's cross country team enters the 2020 G-MAC Championship meet as the favorite to repeat after a strong start to the season, though not without serious challengers to the crown. The Charger women have run just two races in this abbreviated season leading into the G-MAC Championship, but they've won both the Hillsdale Invitational on Sept. 12 and the Tiffelberg Invite on Oct. 2, and beaten their most serious competition for the G-MAC championship in order to claim both titles. Those victories are why Hillsdale is currently ranked fourth in the nation among Division II teams competing in women's cross country this season, and predicted by national voters to claim the G-MAC crown for the second straight season and the third time in four years.
The Charger women boast two strong contenders for the individual title in senior Maryssa Depies (Muskegon, MI/Reeths-Puffer) and junior Sophia Maeda (Mead, CO/Mead), who have run the two fastest 6K times in the G-MAC to date. Depies, a three-time first team All-G-MAC honoree, ran a 21:28 on Oct. 2 on the Seneca Hills Course to win the Tiffelberg Invite, with Maeda, a second-team All-G-MAC honoree, taking second in 21:59.2. They are the only two G-MAC competitors to run under 22 minutes in a 6K race this season so far.
Hillsdale can back those top-end talents up with a strong pack as well. Sophomore Gwynne Riley (Archbold, OH/Archbold) was a second-team All-G-MAC honoree last year as well and finished fourth at the Tiffelberg Invite (22:30.7), and seniors Christina Sawyer (Tecumseh, MI/Tecumseh) and Megan Poole (Osseo, MI/Hillsdale Academy), junior Claire McNally (Canton, MI/Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard), sophomore Margaret Scheske (Sturgis, MI/Sturgis) and freshman Liz Wamsley (St. Louis, MI/Homeschooled) have all run under 23 minutes and finished in the top 10 in a race for the Chargers this season. In three seasons to date in the G-MAC, the Chargers have never finished worse than second and are looking for their 16th conference title in program history on Saturday.
There will be several challengers to the Chargers' repeat title hopes, led by Cedarville and junior Alayna Ackley, who boasts the third-fastest 6K time this year behind Depies and Maeda. The Yellowjackets finished a close second to the Chargers at the Hillsdale Invite and are ranked fifth in Division II. Other contenders include Walsh, which won the 2018 G-MAC championship and which returns first-team All-G-MAC runner Alexa Leppelmeier, and Malone, which returns the 2019 G-MAC individual champion, Mackenna Curtis-Collins.
Men's Preview:
In 2019, the Hillsdale men's cross country team earned its best conference finish in 15 years, taking second place behind Walsh in the G-MAC Championship Meet. The Chargers are looking to equal or better that finish in 2020, and there are reasons for optimism despite strong competition from both the defending champion Cavaliers and other challengers.
Leading the way for the Chargers so far this season is junior Adam Wier (Versailles, KY/Lexington Christian Academy). He's posted the top time for Hillsdale in both of its invitationals, and won his first collegiate individual cross country title at the Tiffelberg Invite on Oct. 2 with an 8K time of 25:40.8. The junior also earned second-team All-G-MAC honors last season.
Along with Wier, the Chargers also return two 2019 first team All-G-MAC honorees in seniors Mark Miller (Medford, NJ/Shawnee) and Morgan Morrison (Harrisburg, PA/West Shore Christian) who will play a big role for Hillsdale in Saturday's race. Sophomores Mark Sprague (Clarkston, MI/Clarkston) and Isaac Waffle (Tekonsha, MI/Olivet) have been mainstays in the top seven as well for Hillsdale so far this season, as has freshman Alex Mitchell (Holland, MI/Holland Christian).
The Charger men have an uphill climb to bring home their first outright conference title in 20 years, with defending champion Walsh posting strong showings in multiple invitationals and Malone close behind. Both the Cavaliers and Pioneers are ranked in the top 15 nationally in the Division II coaches poll, and Cedarville is also a threat.
But there's reason to believe based on the past performances of its top seven runners that Hillsdale hasn't shown its true potential in either meet of the season to date, and could be more competitive on Saturday than its current seed times suggest if it can tap into that potential.