Photo courtesy of Shannon Stanglewicz.
Senior Stephanie Carroll runs at Notre Dame on Oct. 8.
Excitement has been building this week among the men, women, and staff of the Hillsdale cross country program. After a solid performance at the Michigan Intercollegiate meet on Oct. 8, the Charger team is ready to run in the GLIAC Championships this weekend.
"We do have a strong team and we're ready to run well at conference," said junior Heidi Johnson. "We looked at [the Michigan Intercollegiates] as a meet to get in some speed."
Johnson led the way for the Chargers ladies at the meet, with a 12th place finish.
The Charger ladies placed 3rd overall and once again beat several Division I programs. The team also continued to strengthen their pack running skills.
The Charger men gave an impressive performance as well, coming in 3rd in the men's 4K race. Top Charger finishers were senior Michael Nikkila with a time of 12:06, senior David Sayers with a time of 12:13 and junior Scott Kallgren with a time of 12:15. The Hillsdale men's cross country team is now ranked 11th in the nation.
"The Michigan Intercollegiates was a good meet for us," said Coach Bill Lundberg. He added that it was particularly good "to see Grand Valley and get on their course [since] the GLIAC meet will be hosted by Grand Valley this Saturday."
Both the Charger men and women are ready for the challenge they face this weekend at the GLIAC Championships.
"Our athletes have a lot of experience going into this meet, both with our fine performances this season and with a number of our athletes having a fine conference meet effort last year," said Coach Lundberg.
The women's team is hoping to finish in one of the top three slots at the championships. In order to do so, they must beat at least one of the four regional contenders ranked above Hillsdale in the national poll.
The men's team is determined to win the championships this Saturday. The national poll has Hillsdale ranked higher than all of its regional competitors except for Grand Valley, which is ranked five slots above them in the national poll.
"We're confident but we've just got to really focus," said senior David Sayers.
Coach Lundberg is optimistic about his teams' chances.
"We are training very well and have had some fine races leading into this one," he said. "We're ready to make a statement."