Junior Emily Oren won her race and broke the standing Hillsdale College record for the 3K with a 9:28 time at the IU Invitational on Dec. 12. Her 5K time was also the second best in the nation.
“It was amazing. I didn’t really have a sense of time after my coach stopped calling my splits, but when I finished and heard my time I was definitely excited,” Oren said.
Junior Kristina Galat and senior Joshua Mirth raced at the meet as well.
While Galat didn’t break any records, her 16:38 time was the fastest 5K in Division II this year. Mirth found similar success, winning his heat; however, because of some issues with the organization of the race, he fell just short of breaking any records.
“Mirth probably would’ve broken the record if he had raced in the first heat, but IU filled that heat with their own guys, leaving Mirth out of the first heat,” track and cross-country head coach Andrew Towne said. “IU didn’t think he could keep up with them, but he could’ve.”
Coach Towne explained that, for most sports, the gap between DI and DII schools athletically is too great to overcome, but that is not the case with track.
“In cross and track, the levels of competition are much more even — many Hillsdale runners turned down DI scholarships to run here, making us viable opponents for ‘better’ schools,” Towne said.
Towne hand-picked Oren, Galat, and Mirth for the race in Bloomington based on their performances during the cross-country season last semester. Oren and Galat helped the women’s team finish second in the Division II Nationals.
“We all performed really well, which was amazing, considering when Nationals was,” Oren said.
With Oren already qualifying for Indoor Track nationals after the first race, and Galat and Mirth running times that should get them there, Oren and her teammates are “very excited” for the rest of the season. With Indoor Nationals only a short time away in March, the team is working hard to continue with the success they found last week at IU.
“We’re very excited for the rest semester, especially after the success in Indiana. We’ll be back next week and we’ll try to do better,” Oren said.