“Across the board this was probably one of the best weekends our program has had, period,” said Andrew Towne, head track and field coach.
Last weekend, Hillsdale participated in two meets. Two coaches accompanied 17 students to the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational for an opportunity to practice on a banked track. The NCAA Division II championships will be held on a banked track this year. The rest of the travel squad competed at Grand Valley State University’s Big Meet. Hillsdale athletes made 16 provisional marks, two automatic marks, and set four school records.
“I told the kids yesterday—every week we have athletes of the week that the staff and I pick, and it’s getting harder and harder because we have more and more options,” Towne said of the team’s improvement.
Junior Emily Oren set a new personal record in the mile with a time of 4:45.21, beating her old record by six seconds. Breaking that old PR was a goal of Oren’s going into the meet. Her new time places her first in GLIAC and third in NCAA Division II. It was both a provisional mark and an automatic mark, meaning she has a guaranteed spot for the NCAA championships.
“It was a really great weekend overall,” Oren said via email, stuck in Boston because of the weather. “I was really excited about it.”
Towne explained that while Oren’s mile was the fastest unconverted time in school history, it falls just shy of a school record because of the variation in indoor track sizes. Oren’s time was set on a 200 banked track, while the school record, while technically more time, was set on a flat track.
Oren posted another set of Division II provisional and automatic marks as part of the women’s distance medley relay. She, sophomore Allison Duber, senior Amy Kerst, and junior Kristina Galat posted a time of 11:34.65, which breaks the school record by about 5 seconds and places them first in GLIAC and second in Division II.
“All of the girls on the relay ran really well and we were able to compete with some good D-I teams and ended up placing third overall in the meet which was higher than I think I had expected,” Oren said. “It was also really exciting because afterwards we were really happy with our time but we all knew we can run so much faster than that.”
Galat echoed Oren in an email.
“Although we were really successful in it, the fun part is that I know we can run a lot faster,” she said.
Galat posted a provisional mark in the 3K as well with a time of 9:37.27.
“It was my first time running it all year, so I was hoping to post a faster time,” Galat said. “But I was still happy with it.”
The women’s 4×400 overcame its tentativeness of a week ago to run an aggressive race, posting a provisionally qualifying 3:48.17 and setting a new school record. The relay team as a whole was GLIAC’s Athlete of the Week.
On the men’s side, freshman pole vaulter Jared Schipper broke a 22-year-old school record in the pole vault and is now ranked sixth in the nation.
Senior Joshua Mirth ran the 3K with a time of 8.14.01. Like Oren, that is the fastest raw time posted in Hillsdale track history, but with conversions does not actually break the school record. Towne said that while the time is merely a provisional qualifier, it should get him into nationals.
This weekend the Chargers run at home.
“We’re sitting in a nice spot,” Towne said. “We want to use this weekend to tune up and be fully ready to go for GLIACs in two weeks.”
Oren is ready to go.
“I am really excited for GLIACs,” she said. “ I think we have a lot of girls that can score big points for the team which is really exciting. And I can’t wait to run the DMR again since we have won that the past two years I would like to keep that streak going.”
Galat is also confident.
“I think the team is in a really good spot right now, and I’m looking forward to see how it all plays out.”
