The Hillsdale College men's cross country team faced critical meets this Friday, as it split its squad for its final tune-up meets before the G-MAC Championship meet at the end of the month.
Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational
With most of its squad competing in the Joe Piane Invitational hosted by Notre Dame University in South Bend, the Chargers were able to secure a ninth-place finish in the Open Division.
As the sole Division II school in a meet filled with some of the biggest names across Division I cross country on Friday, the Chargers held their own and did well, finishing with 220 points and ahead of four other teams in the race.
Junior Adam Wier continued his strong start to the season by leading the Chargers for the third consecutive race, finishing the five-mile course in 33rd place with a time of 25:54.8. Wier was just a few places behind former teammate and two-time Division II All-American Joey Humes, now running for Purdue, who took 30th just two seconds ahead of Wier.
Several other young Chargers performed well. Freshman Alex Mitchell took 60th in 26:36.2 to cross the line as Hillsdale's second runner, also building on a strong start to the year for him.
Two runners who are competing in their first cross country seasons for Hillsdale also finished in the top 100. Micah Vanderkooi took 87th for the Chargers in 27:20. 5, while freshman Preston Fagerlin took 100th (27:51.5) as well.
Sophomore Sean Hoeft took 105th (28:13.4) to round out Hillsdale's scoring five, freshman Donnie McArdle finished 110th (28:43.9) and sophomore Mark Sprague took 118th (29:38.4) as well.
The Chargers now have a long layoff to ramp up their training and make final adjustments before the G-MAC Championship Meet on Saturday, Oct. 23, hosted by Cedarville. Hillsdale is looking to improve on a fourth-place finish at the 2020 G-MAC Championships last fall.
LCC Invite
The Chargers also sent a team to compete in the Lansing Cross Country Invitational, hosted at Grand Woods Park by Lansing Community College.
Hillsdale finished fifth as a team with 141 points, led by decorated senior Mark Miller, who made his season debut with a fifth place finish and a time of 26:51.2 in the 8K race.
Sophomore Isaac Waffle crossed the line in 18th place for the Chargers, in a time of 27:22.6, and senior Jack Shelley was close behind in 29th in a time of 27:50.9.
Freshman Richie Johnston ran a personal best time of 28:15.7 to finish in 38th place for Hillsdale, and fellow first-year runner Caleb Bigler rounded out the Chargers' scoring runners with a 61st place finish and a time of 29:16.2.
Caleb Oser took 102nd for Hillsdale with a time of 31:04.3 and Dylan Palmer finished 122nd with a time of 31:44.2 as well.
Photo by Gwen Buchhop