The women’s track team won event after event at the Tune Up on Saturday, promising a successful meet next week at G-MACs.
Senior Fiona Shea took two of the three Charger wins during the meet. She won the 200-meter dash in 25.86 minutes and finished the 60-meter dash in 7.85 seconds.
Shea said she and other teammates were fighting off a cold and flu prior to the meet, so they hadn’t had much time to practice before the meet.
“We’ve had a pretty good season of training so we knew we were gonna start to hit our peaks around here and around our conference next week,” she said.
About a third of the team competed in the Tune Up, with most of the distance runners sitting out to save energy, but head coach Andrew Towne said about 400 to 500 competed in the meet.
“I thought the Tune Up was exactly what we want it to be,” Towne said.
Shea said the meet was relaxed, but the teams who participated provided good competition.
“It was a really good chance to get out there and prove ourselves and fix the small things before conference,” she said.
Senior team captain Rachael Tolsma continued to shine in her events, taking second place in both shot-put and weight throw, making an NCAA provisional mark in the latter.
Younger athletes also distinguished themselves. Sophomore Abbie Porter finished second in the 800-meter, and freshman Carmen Botha finished second in the 60-meter hurdles. Towne said that Porter, though an academic sophomore, is a freshman on the team, and still learning the 800-meter race.
The Chargers also won the 4×400 meter relay, finishing in 3:55.13. Seniors Ashlee Moran and Victoria Wichman, sophomore Lorina Clemence, and freshman Zoe Eby made up the relay team.
Clemence said the team didn’t race as fast as they had wanted, but they did what they could.
“We really wanna shave down our 4×400 time because we’re really hoping to make it to nationals,” she said.
G-MACs will be held at home in Hillsdale’s own Margot V. Biermann Center. Shea said the team is excited to compete at home without the hassle of travel, and they are looking forward to winning some G-MAC championships. But the Chargers won’t let the recent success keep them from focusing ahead.
“Our coach just met with us today to tell us that even though we do have this great opportunity to win some championships and odds are that we will because we’re pretty strong, pretty high powered, we’re still going into it with a mindset of its a fight and we’re gonna fight for every point we earn,” Shea said.
