Senior Todd Frickey won the 100-meter with a time of 10.67 seconds. This is a personal record for Frickey, who has been facing fierce competition from his own teammates this year.
“It was a good start to build off of. It’s been really nice have someone push me everyday at practice,” Frickey said. “I’m just making sure I am controlling things I can control every day like my effort and attitude, and doing the right things and working hard. I’m doing the best that I can and the times will speak for themselves.”
In the 800-meter, junior Caleb Gatchell placed first with a time of 1:59.08. Freshman Tanner Schwannecke was not far behind with a time of 1:59.96, placing third.
Gatchell also placed third in the 1500-meter, running a 4:04.01, while sophomore Anthony Wondaal won the event with a time of 4:01.06. Though this was his first 1500, Wondaal said he was disappointed with his time based on how he has been doing in the mile and expects to run a faster 1500 during the season.
“The competition was what I expected for the first two laps but going into the third backstretch, no one wanted to take the wind and everyone put on their brakes so the last lap was really slow,” Wondaal said.
The 4×100 meter relay team started off strong, winning the event with a time of 41.70 seconds. The team included Frickey, sophomores Colby Clark and Lane White, and junior Sergio San Jose Lorza. Head coach Andrew Towne said believes this could be the best team the program has ever had.
Hillsdale took first and second in the pole vault this weekend. Sophomore Jared Schipper won the event, jumping 16 feet, 4.75 inches. This also earned him a provisional mark. Senior Matt Harris took second with a jump of 15 feet, 7 inches.
“I’m happy with it. It wasn’t as high as I would have liked to go but better than I was expecting,” Schipper said of his performance. Schipper described the day as the worst warmup he could have had due to the cold, windy weather. He thought he was going to no-height.
Junior Ty Etchemendy won the triple jump with a mark of 47 feet, 5.25 inches.
In the throws, freshman Daniel Capek placed in both of his events. He took third in the discus with a throw of 152 feet, 5 inches, and won the hammer throw with a mark of 194 feet.
“I thought the performance of the meet was by Daniel Capek,” Towne said. “He had probably one of the better throws we’ve ever had to open up with— it’s one of the top marks in the country so far.”
This meet served to get the teams back into the swing of things after a short break between seasons.
“It was a really solid start. We competed well. Some of the early season meets when either you don’t feel great because of training or the weather’s not great, you have to get in the mode of competing and we did that really well,” Towne said.
He expects the men’s team to continue improving this season.
“I thought we made big strides indoors. We have people that are now at an NCAA that need to move to where they’re consistent all-american or national championship contender and then we have people who are starting to be a stand-out at the GLIAC level but they’ve got to move on and start to be an NCAA kid for us,” Towne said. “I think we have a better group outside.”
This weekend, those who qualified for nationals individually indoors will travel to Miami, Florida, to compete in the Hurricane Alumni Invitational at the University of Miami.