The Hillsdale men’s and women’s track and field teams hosted their largest indoor meet at home in the Margot V. Biermann Center, with more than 900 athletes participating. Amongst the large turnout, the Chargers took a variety of top places, but produced divided overall results.
The men came out of the events with three first place wins, in the 400-meter by senior Maurice Jones and in the triple jump by freshman Ty Etchemendy, both of whom earned provisional marks. The third also broke the standing Hillsdale College record, as Etchemendy, and seniors Matthew Raffin, Elliot Murphy, and Jones took first in the 4×400 meter relay.
Raffin took fourth and made provisional marks in the 60-meter hurdles, juniors Joshua Mirth and Jack Butler took fourth and ninth in the 5,000 meter, and freshman Thomas Grayson and junior John Wierenga took fourth and fifth in the 5000-meter. Sophomore Nicholas Shuster placed fifth in the high jump.
“The meet was a mixture of success and disappointment,” Mirth said. “It was the first large track meet we have hosted in the Biermann Center; despite that, there were surprisingly few logistical issues, as far as I could tell. In terms of performances, we had a couple exceptional ones, in particular the men’s 4×400 meter relay, which set a new school record, and Ty Etchemendy, who won the triple jump. The long distance races were a bit less stellar.”
The women’s team had a strong showing in the top 10 in a variety of events, but not as consistently high results across the board. Freshmen Alex Whitford and Allison Duber both received a provisional mark and took third in their respective events of pole vault and the 400 meter. Fellow freshman Madison Estelle placed fourth in the triple jump.
The teams look forward to their second-to-last chance to prepare for GLIACs at Grand Valley State University, a two-day meet on Feb. 14 and 15, at which they will focus on their individual marks.
“The last meet at Grand Valley was a scored meet with only five teams and we aimed to get points, but this week is about trying to qualify for nationals,” head men’s coach Jeff Forino said. “It’s probably our best chance for our distance runners to qualify.”
The outlook is largely positive, according to Mirth.
“I’m optimistic about the rest of the season,” he said. “Training is really starting to kick in now, and I think in the next couple weeks, especially at Grand Valley’s Big Meet this weekend, we’ll have some great performances.”
The home meet also provided a good, comfortable confidence boost, Forino said. It places the team in a good place going into the last few meets to earn good seeds and lanes in the upcoming conference meet. He said the Charger athletes and coaches alike did well helping logistically, and the organization did not prove to be a problem, especially in regard to the unprecedented size of the indoor home meet.
“Our coaches worked really hard to put this meet together,” Mirth said. “I know it’s pretty stressful for them, but I think they did a great job.”
