The Hillsdale College Chargers traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, for the Vanderbilt Black & Gold Invitational on Friday and Saturday. The two-day outdoor meet provided the Chargers with opportunities to see great competition, set personal bests, and earn provisional marks.
On Friday, senior Jared Schipper sported his Hillsdale uniform after competing unattached during the indoor season. He started his senior campaign strong with a second-place finish and well-surpassed provisional mark of 5.05 meters in the pole vault. Teammate and freshman Ben Raffin was right behind in third place with a provisional mark of his own, clearing 4.90 meters.
“It’s great to have Schipper back,” Towne said. “I was really happy with how he and Raffin did.”
In the other field events, sophomore Ryan Thomsen nearly tied his personal best of 1.96 meters in the high jump. On Saturday he jumped 1.95 meters to take sixth place. Thomsen also ran the 110 meter hurdles finishing in 15.59 seconds to take 18th.
Freshman John Baldwin and junior Ian Brown competed in the 110 meter hurdles as well. Baldwin took third place in 14.72 and Brown placed 14th in 15.29.
“Not as good as my opener, but still a solid race and it showed me what I needed to work on,” Baldwin said.
Brown teamed up with seniors Levi Wyse and Nathan Pando, and freshman Jacob Schmidt, for the 4-by-100 meter relay. After not practicing their handoffs outdoors and adjusting to new exchange zones, they passed the baton around smoothly for a time of 42.02 seconds, which is already faster than they ran the race last season.
“Although we had conservative takeoff marks and minimal practice with handoffs, we executed well and were able to take advantage of the warm weather and throw down a great opening time,” Wyse said. “I was really proud of how the guys executed.”
Pando and Schmidt ran the 200 meter dash as well. Pando started off his outdoor season faster than ever with a time of 22.29, and Schmidt ran 22.86. Sophomore Adam Wade ran his first collegiate 200 finishing in 22.79.
Hillsdale’s 4-by-400 meter relay of Wyse, Wade, Schmidt, and Baldwin rounded out the weekend, finishing ninth overall in 3:21.27.
“I thought both relays ran well,” Towne said. “And I think Pando and Wade did a nice job last weekend.”
This weekend, the Chargers will be traveling to Louisville, Kentucky for the Bellarmine Invitational.
