As an impact transfer in 2024, Gabriel Phillips helped the Hillsdale College men's cross country team bring home its first conference title in 24 years.

This year, as a senior, Phillips has his sights set on even more, and showed it with an impressive performance at Hillsdale's season-opening home invitational on Friday evening.

Phillips ran away from the field, taking first place in a five mile race by nearly 13 seconds over his closest competitor, Glen Davis of Wayne State. The senior finished in 20:10.3 to kick off what should be an exciting campaign.

As a team, the Chargers took second behind the Warriors, with 40 total points. Junior Caleb Youngstedt was Hillsdale's top finisher behind Phillips, placing ninth in 21:13.7. He was followed closely by freshman John Richardson, who ran an impressive first collegiate race to place 10th in 21:20.9, and sophomore Zach Self, who took 11th in 21:24.4.

Senior Nathaniel Osborne rounded out Hillsdale's scoring runners with a 13th place finish in 21:25.9, and Emil Schleuter took 23rd in 21:53.7 and Daniel Johnson 27th in 22:03.4 for the Chargers.

Hillsdale will be in action again a week from Friday, heading to East Lansing to run against a strong field at the annual MSU Spartan Invitational on Sept. 12.