It’s not often at Hillsdale College that students win Division II championship titles. In fact, it’s never happened for a female competitor — at least not until last weekend.
Junior Amanda Putt nabbed not one, but two national titles at the NCAA DII Indoor Track and Field Championships at Minnesota State University-Mankato. She is now the division’s top one-mile and 800-meter runner.
It’s been an incredible year for Putt, who broke five school records in a five-week span and won All-American honors in cross-country and outdoor track.
But Putt wasn’t the only one to shine this weekend.
Six other students ran, jumped, and threw their way to All-American honors, including juniors Kayla Caldwell and Kathy Dirksen, senior Nate English, sophomore Maurice Jones, and seniors Jennifer Shaffer and Chelsea Wackernagel.
These students represent the athletic ideal. We talk about the combination of the active and contemplative life, but it’s rare that people really excel at both.
Putt has an absurdly high grade point average (3.8), wins awards for her work in biology, and plans to go on to graduate school for public health. And she’s just one of the track team’s stellar over-achievers.
And yet, the track team doesn’t get a lot of glory.
You don’t see any e-mails for a campus send-off to their national championship. The school does not arrange for charter buses to take student fans to the meets. There’s not even a current media guide on the website.
But this has not stopped the track and field athletes from outstanding achievement, both on the track and off it.
Education is about more than head knowledge — we seek virtues of the soul and mind,but also the body. Our track athletes demonstrated that virtue this weekend flawlessly.
We the editorial board salute you.
So, next time you see a track athlete, congratulate them. And stop by the Gina Relays this spring to cheer them on.
