Women’s track gears up against Division I competition at the University of Michigan

Home Charger Track and Field Women’s track gears up against Division I competition at the University of Michigan
Women’s track gears up against Division I competition at the University of Michigan

The Hillsdale Chargers women’s track team competed on Saturday against Division I athletes at the Wolverine Invitational hosted by University of Michigan.

“We had Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame and then a few other pretty solid mid-majors in Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan,” head coach Andrew Towne said.

While the brand-new facility at Michigan made for an intimidating atmosphere, the event’s stakes were low, according to Towne.

“The meet is a season opener for mostly everybody, so we weren’t putting up a ton of lifetime bests and they weren’t either,” he said. “But for us it’s a great opener in that we compete against some people that maybe we only see the likes of at really, really big meets. So it’s a great experience for our kids right of the bat — to be competitive and get used to competing against high level athletes.”

Senior Hannah McIntyre, named G-MAC Athlete of the Week, distinguished herself in the 3000-meter, finishing in 12th place. While it wasn’t a personal record, Towne said she had a good season opener, her time a NCAA provisional qualifying mark. Sophomore Arena Lewis finished 13th in the 3000 meter, right behind McIntyre. Her time qualified her for NCAA competition and was also a personal record.

McIntyre said she was pleasantly surprised by how well the team performed with only five weeks of training, none being on that specific track.

“We were really using the meet to just see where our fitness was at,” she said. “It was a good indicator of where our fitness is at, which is actually much better than I thought.”

The freshmen faced a challenge at the meet after a month-long break since their Sagina meet. But Towne said the class is very talented, noting specifically Zoe Eby and Maryssa Depies, saying the meet was a great experience for them.

“For a lot of the freshmen it was their first indoor meet and I think it was definitely pretty intimidating. Mostly there were really awesome Division I schools there, and the facility itself was really nice… I think some of the younger runners did experience extra nerves. I would have as well,” McIntyre said. “But in the end people were pretty relaxed.”

Towne praised Senior Rachael Tolsma’s performance in the weight throw, finishing in 5th place with a throw of 17.15 meters. Though not as far as her throw in the first meet this season, Towne said she was consistent. He noted that the week leading up to the meet, Tolsma participated in a leadership class, pushing her practice time to 6 a.m. all week and making it difficult to prepare.

“In the weight throw I executed some things technically pretty well, this meet showed me where else I could improve technically,” Tolsma said.

Hillsdale will host its next meet Saturday, Jan. 20, which will be scored, unlike last week’s meet. Towne said scoring the meets add flavor to them, making the competition more meaningful and exciting.

“If you know no one’s going to be great in the pole vault, for the average fan it can be boring,” he said. “If you know though that first place is still worth points and seventh place is still worth points in the pole vault, it’s a little bit more of a competitive atmosphere.”

He says he hopes the meet they designed will grow over the years, but it was originally organized to include two to three teams from all of the conferences in the Midwest region, including the G-MAC, the GLIAC, and the the GLBC.

“A few teams have backed out, so we’re still going to be at five to six total. It will be a season starter for a few schools,” he said.

The team’s success at Michigan built confidence for the athletes looking ahead to the rest of the season.

“I’m excited to see how we can build off of this going into conferences and then nationals,” Tolsma said.