Sunny, 62 degrees, and a subtle breeze: Last Friday was a perfect day for the Spartan Invitation cross-country meet.
Hillsdale’s men’s and women’s cross-country teams traveled to East Lansing where the meet was hosted at Michigan State University’s golf course, giving competitors a smooth, flat run on the greens.
Lined up in their appropriate boxes, anticipation and excitement mounted as the women runners waited for the gun to sound to kick-off their first race of the season.
The meet featured 300 women runners from over 25 different teams.
For the first couple minutes of the race, the majority of Hillsdale’s team stayed together, but as the 6K continued, the girls started to wean off with the runners in their pace categories.
Junior Kristina Galat lead the Hillsdale team with a time of 22:08, earning 18th place. Not far behind, junior Emily Oren placed 27th with a time of 22:32. Galat and Oren consistently compete for the teams’ 1st and 2nd spots.
After running her first 6K, freshman Hannah McIntyre earned her spot as third runner for Hillsdale with a solid time of 22:43.
“Yeah, she ran amazingly for her first 6K. What a girl,” senior captain Rachel Warner said. “It was interesting to see how the meet turned out. We trained through it and some of us were flat, but some did really well.”
The Hillsdale cross-country top five runners finished in front of Grand Valley State University’s top seven runners.
“That’s a pretty big deal. They are ranked first in the nation,” Warner said.
Coach Lynn said he expects great things from the ladies this season.
The men raced an 8K, 4.97 miles. 377 men from over 25 teams competed.
After a minute into the meet, it was obvious who was going to take first spot for Hillsdale. Senior Josh Mirth, an All-American competitor, finished 7th with a time of 24:53. He averaged a remarkable mile time of 4:59.
Senior Luke Hickman ran well and placed 58th, putting up a time of 25:51.
Right behind Hickman in 59th place was sophomore Caleb Gatchell.
Freshman Anthony Wondalal started his collegiate career strong, finishing as Hillsdale’s fifth runner with a 26:44 scoring time.
“It’s a whole different game for the freshmen guys,” coach Lynn said. “It’s going from running a little three mile race to building up the stamina and speed to race almost double the length.”
After a strong first meet, the teams now have two weekends off. They will compete next at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Indiana on Oct. 3.