After a third place finish from the women and fifth from the men at the GLIAC indoor championships last weekend, the Hillsdale College track and field team is sending 15 athletes to the NCAA Division II national championships in Birmingham, Alabama on March 13 and 14, co-hosted by the Birmingham CrossPlex and the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
The women’s team won 86 points and the men picked up 66.
“I thought the kids did what we asked,” head coach Andrew Towne said. “They were very focused on what they needed to do. They didn’t spend a lot of time focusing on other people they just focused on what they needed to do. And really I think that’s key for a championship meet. In a championship meet very rarely do you have everything go your way so really as a coach you just like to see as many things as possible go your way and I thought we had a lot of things go our way this weekend.”
Towne said that the women’s distance runners had an especially strong performance. Hillsdale women won the Distance Medley Relay for the third straight year with a time of 11:27.33, which broke both school and GLIAC records.
“We did it by ourselves; there was nobody near us,” said junior Emily Oren, who runs the DMR anchor.
Towne said that the overall team placement was not particularly surprising. Though, he thinks the women could mix it up for second sometimes.
“You do that meet five times and I’m going to say probably twice we end up second,” he said. “The reality is we are ranked fifth in the country and we lost to the top team and the third team, so it’s not your usual third place finish. On the men’s side, I knew going in, whether we were really good or really bad, we weren’t going to move from fifth. There’s a huge gap after fifth. You know, we’ve been in and out of the top 25, the other four teams are in the top 10, and then there’s nobody else.”
The men have placed fifth consistently for a while now, and though third is the highest placement the women’s team has had for some time, Towne is hopeful for future improvement.
“This conference is not the same as it was three years ago, five years ago, eight years ago,” Towne said. “It is incredibly tough. So, the team we have now on the women’s side, I really believe that 10 or 12 years ago we would win most GLIAC championships. But, like I said, we lost to the first and the third ranked teams in the country, and we’re fifth, so we’re not a slouch, but the conference is very, very tough. The nice thing about that — to me they’re two nice things — one I love the competition. I would much rather have a really tough conference and I think our kids are that way too. Second thing is when we go to NCAAs, it’s not a big jump for us.”
Oren won the mile in addition to the DMR at GLIACs with a time of 4:49.02, and was named GLIAC Female Runner of the Meet and Female Runner of the Year.
“That was really good,” she said. “I won by a lot.”
Oren will be running at the NCCA Division II nationals in both the mile, in which she will be joined by two other Hillsdale runners, and as part of the DMR team.
The women’s 4×400 team won Sunday with a time of 3:48.13, qualifying for nationals. The men’s 4×400 also qualified for the national meet.
Freshman Lane White won the 400 meter in a record-breaking 47.65. He was named the GLIAC Freshman Running Athlete of the Week.
“Even though we did have a great weekend, I’m still not satisfied quite yet,” White said. “I’ve still got some work to do, and more work to do the next four years.”
As a freshman, White found the GLIAC championship an entirely new experience.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” he said. “I just went into it with an open mind. I just listened to what Coach Towne had to say and he really gave me some confidence that I needed to go into the race.”
Distance runners played a prominent role at the meet for the men’s team as well as the women.
“Distance runners, 800 on up, scored 32 of our 66 points which is by far the most the distance side has scored in the last couple years, so that was pretty cool,” senior Joshua Mirth said.
Mirth contributed to that success.
“I was quite happy with how it went for me,” he said. “I won the 5K, which was the third year in a row I’ve done that, so that was pretty exciting. That’s a pretty good way to finish—or almost finish because I have nationals still. And I came back the second day and was second in the 3K.”
Now the coaches and 15 athletes are looking forward to next week’s NCAA championships.
“I think we’re ready to go, across the board,” Towne said. “As the head coach I’ve always been adamant that we certainly want to put a good product out there at the GLIAC championships, but we recruit and coach based on being a high quality NCAA team and I think we’re more built for that now than ever.”
Towne said only one of the six men going to the Division II championships has been there before. This will be Mirth’s first time.
“I’m not sure what to expect, because I’ve definitely seen in the past and been told by other people who have been to track nationals that the first time you’re there it’s a little disorienting, it’s a little intimidating, it’s a little more intense than what you’re used to, and a lot of people’s first race at nationals doesn’t go all that well,” Mirth said. “So I’m trying to prepare myself for it to be a little bit different while at the same time try not to psych myself out about it.”
Oren has done it all before.
“I’ve been to the same facility,” Oren said. “I ran there my freshman year, and I did really, really bad. So, I’m hoping those ghosts don’t come and haunt me.”
White is trying to keep advice in mind as he looks forward to being a freshman at his first NCAA championship.
“Tell yourself it’s an opportunity, is what coach always says,” he said. “He says don’t make it a challenge, make it an opportunity to perform well, and I feel like that’s changed my perspective on racing a lot.”
