CLINTON, Miss. – Spring Hill College's cross country team opened its season at The MC Opener on September 5. Competing at Choctaw Trails, the Badger men finished 11th with 269 points, and the women finished seventh with 191 points.

Zachary Thomas led the men's team with a personal record of 17:46.8, placing 50th. Freshmen Erik Lindmark and Noah Akers placed 75th and 92nd, respectively, while sophomore Luke Burlison finished 90th and junior Luke Mipro finished 101st. For the women's side, senior Cecilia Light debuted with a top-20 finish, placing 17th and led the team with a time of 20:30.2. Evelyn Hererra also finished in the top 20, clocking a time of 21:01.5. Along with these achievements, sophomore Lydia Hamilton broke her 5K personal record with a time of 28:31.8, placing 80th.

Meet Details
Date: September 5
Venue (Location): Choctaw Trails (Clinton, Miss.)

They Said It – Head Coach Craig McVey
On the meet
"Considering the heat index and humidity, both teams had a solid start. We competed really hard. We have a number of new people, so this was the first time they'd all raced together both women and men. It was a typical first meet: gauging if your fitness level is where you thought it was, working pace, and concentrating when it was more difficult during the race. Our women were tied for sixth of 13 scoring teams. Our men were 11th out of 16 scoring teams."

On the women's 5K
"CeCe [Cecilia] Light had a great first ever cross country race for us. Her 11th-scoring place in the meet with a 20:30 effort on the day we had was just a great beginning! She and Evelyn raced together past the 2-mile mark, and that's a great sign of how they'll be able to race together down the line. Evelyn's time was only two scoring places behind CeCe. Both are going to have great seasons. Alli, Kerrigan, and Lydia all had first races of the year that were significantly better than a year ago. They're ready to make huge progress. There are good things around the corner."

On the men's 5K
"The guys raced really hard. Today was about competing, not times, especially on the type of day we had. We had two new freshmen in our group with solid first college races. Zachary Thomas ran as our number one runner. We'll try to get our top three to race together as we move to an 8k on September 19. Moving forward, as we have everyone transitioning to 8k, we'll probably have three taking a shot at all-conference honors. We have time to be where we want to be."

Looking ahead
"Time to use what we learned Friday, go to work, train hard, and be ready for Albany State's Willie Laster Invitational."

Up Next
The Badgers will travel to Albany, Ga., on September 19 to compete in the Willie Laster Invitational at Radium Springs Park.

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