In a tightly contested race, the Hillsdale College men's cross country team placed fourth overall at the 2021 G-MAC Conference Championships, hosted by Cedarville this Saturday.
As has been the case all season, Junior Adam Wier was the first Charger across the line, dropping almost a minute from his previous season's best to run a time of 25:06 in the 8k distance. Wier opened strong and held onto a top-ten position for most of the race, surging in the final half-mile to place 8th overall. He was also the sole Charger to earn first-team all-GMAC honors for the men, his second time receiving the designation after also placing in the top 10 in the 2020 G-MAC Championships.
Next across the line for Hillsdale was freshman Alex Mitchell, who set a personal record by over a minute to capture 23rd with a time of 25:40. Just after him, freshman Micah Vanderkooi also dropped his time by over a minute to run 25:44 and cross the line in 25th.
Two seconds behind Vanderkooi, Senior Mark Miller continued to show improvement after battling injury for most of the season, finishing in 25:46 and improving upon his own season's best by over a minute to snatch 26th for the Chargers. Rounding out the scoring top five for Hillsdale, freshman Preston Fagerlin stepped up to place 35th overall, shaving an impressive minute and a half from his personal record to cross the line in 26:16.
Freshman Ross Kuhn was the next to finish, running a time of 26:52 to place 63rd overall. Just after Kuhn was freshman Donnie McArdle, who placed 64th (26:54) and closed out the top seven for the Chargers.
Championship favorite Walsh captured the meet title for the third time in a row, placing their five scoring runners in the top eleven to earn 30 points overall. Meet hosts Cedarville took second with 66, and Tiffin snatched third with 89 points. The fourth-place Chargers finished with 108, just in front of competitive rivals Malone with 117 points.
The next competition for Hillsdale is in two weeks in Evansville, Ohio, where they will face conference as well as regional rivals in the 2021 NCAA Midwest Regional Championships. The Chargers can use the next two weeks to build upon the improvements made this Saturday and prepare to send runners to the NCAA National Championships on November 20th.
Photo by Scott Huck, Cedarville Athletics
Written by Allison Nimtz '23