Amid stiff competition, the Hillsdale College men's cross country team finished 19th as a tean at the 2021 NCAA Midwest Regional Championships this Saturday. The Chargers jumped up from their typical 8 kilometer distance to race their first 10k of the season, with several entrants racing in the first collegiate 10K of their careers.
As it has been all season, Hillsdale was led by junior Adam Wier, who placed 23rd overall with a personal record of 31:11 for the 10k distance, earning All-Region honors for his performance. This is the first All-Region honor of Wier's cross country career.
Second across the line for Hillsdale was senior Mark Miller, who finished a memorable and accolade-laden cross country career at Hillsdale with a time of 32:46, placing 80th overall. Miller returned from an injury that kept him out of multiple meets early in the season to have one final strong cross country race in a Charger uniform on Saturday.
After Miller, three Chargers new to the 10k event flooded the line to place 127th, 144th, and 145th overall. Freshman Micah Vanderkooi led that pack by 15 seconds, finishing in 33:55. Freshmen Preston Fagerlin and Alex Mitchell crossed next less than one second apart, running 34:10.9 and 34:11.1 respectively and rounding out the scoring top five for Hillsdale.
Freshman Donnie McArdle, also running his first ever collegiate 10k, finished with a time of 34:34.
Grand Valley captured the meet title with 49 points, a significant margin over Lewis with 118 and GMAC Champions Walsh with 135. Hillsdale finished with 519 points overall.
Written by Allison Nimtz '23
Photo by Elizabeth Randolph, USI Photography & Multimedia