Final Results (PDF)
2017 Great Midwest All-Conference Team (PDF)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – On the strength of four individuals in the top-10 placewinners, Hillsdale emerged as the team winner of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Cross Country Championships conducted Saturday morning.
The Chargers took command of the 13-team field at the league’s sixth annual event hosted by Trevecca, held at Vaughn’s Gap Course at Percy Warner Park. Temperatures were unseasonably warm for some of the respective areas each institution would call home, but with little wind, conditions were near perfect for spectating during competitive 8K and 6K races.
The conference was running its first championship of the 2017-18 academic year with all five new first-year institutions, including Hillsdale, Findlay, Lake Erie, Ohio Dominican and Walsh, in attendance.
In particular, the women’s event was one to keep an eye on with four teams in the USTFCCCA national rankings for the majority of the season (Walsh, Hillsdale, Cedarville, Malone).
As it turned out, Hillsdale interrupted a five-year reign by the Cedarvile Yellow Jackets as Great Midwest team champions. Runner-up Hannah McIntyre paced the Chargers followed by Maryssa Depies in fourth, which also resulted in Great Midwest Freshman of the Year status for the rookie from Muskegon, Mich.
As voted by his peers, Great Midwest Coach of the Year Andrew Towne had his team consistently in the front of the pack as Arena Lewis grabbed sixth, Christina Sawyer crossed the line in ninth and Allysen Eads placed 11th.
“For us, we’re really excited and at the beginning of the year, it was to return to have a championship-level team,” Towne said. “We knew this would be a heck of a meet with a lot of quality teams in the G-MAC, especially on the women’s side and so we’re pretty happy about what we did.”
A total of 14 individuals were recognized for all-conference status at the awards ceremony, including seven on the first team and seven on the second team.
Walsh’s Sarah Berger stole the show with another record-breaking performance to outpace a field of nearly 120 runners and earn Great Midwest Runner of the Year honors. She shattered the Great Midwest Championship meet standard with a time of 21:13.20, almost 11 seconds of cushion between her and McIntyre.
Berger pulled away noticeably on the final lap, showing tremendous stride all the way into the chute as she staked claim to the second-best 6K time in conference history since 2012.
It’s hard to comprehend the talented senior was playing soccer for the Cavaliers just a year ago. After competing at the NCAA Midwest Regional, Berger has taken the conference by storm in a short amount of time as she shifts her focus to national aspirations.
“I didn’t really come into cross country with any expectations and I had no idea how it was going to go; it’s a big change from soccer,” Berger said. “I just have taken it step-by-step and try to get better every week. I know I have a lot left in me and so does my team. We’re looking forward to putting it all together at regionals and hopefully get to nationals.”
Berger now owns the top three 6K times in conference history and also possesses the 5K league record.
Behind Berger’s first-place effort the Cavaliers finished runner-up as a team only to Hillsdale. Walsh was able to celebrate three more all-conference honorees with Brianna Coy making the first team and Andra Lehotay and Chelsea Johnson each gathering second-team honors.
Malone, the 2016 Great Midwest team runner-up, came in third in the 2017 edition as Jade Smith finished third in 21:27.60 to pace the Pioneers. Junior Hannah Thompson also secured all-conference honors with senior teammate Hannah Campbell.
The Yellow Jackets of Cedarville would finish in fourth led by a fifth-place performance from Alaina Spears in 21:40.20.
Great Midwest teams will now look forward to prepare for the NCAA Midwest Regional, hosted this year by Cedarville on Saturday, Nov. 4.