Women’s cross country begins season with first place win

HITTING THE GROUND
RUNNING— The Flying Dutch take off at the starting line of
their first meet of the 2017 season, which they won handily. (Hope College)

Hope College women’s cross country got off to a fire start at the Vanderbilt Invitational championship this past Sat- urday recording a first-place score of 21 points. While af- ter eight consecutive wins at this event this may seem like a routine victory for the pro- gram, finishing with seven of the top-ten runners is a dominating and noteworthy performance. Hope’s team was led by Emily Hamilton (’19) who recorded a time of 18:33.3 seconds. However, she did not have to shoulder much of the load for the team as Alexis Guttilla (’18), Avery Lowe (’19) and Chel- sea Miskelley (’20) finished in third, fourth and fifth place respectively. Other top 10 finishers included Sydney del Valle (’20) who finished eighth, Rebecca Duran (’19) who finished in ninth and Brooke Truszkowski (’21) who came in tenth. This weekend’s invitational served as a great benchmark for the team at the beginning of the 2017 season, putting them up against such tough competition as Cornerstone, Davenport, Calvin, Mus- kegon Community College and Grace Bible. The season is looking bright for coach Mark Northuis and his nine- teenth-ranked Flying Dutch, who will seek new leader- ship this season after gradu- ating team captain, national champion and All-American Erin Herrmann in 2016.