Winning first place with 134 overall points, the Hillsdale College women’s track and field team dominated last Friday’s home meet against Ashland University and the University of Findlay. On the men’s side, the Chargers finished in third with 42 overall points.
“I thought we did a good job still early in the season,” head coach Andrew Towne said. “We don’t get any points at our conference championship or the national championship for what we did this weekend, but we’re in a really good spot and took a step forward from our intrasquad meet the week before, so it was a good step for us.”
The women filled the leaderboards of the mile, 3000m run, and 60m hurdles events. In the mile, team captain and senior Maryssa Depies won first at 5:02.61, while senior Lauren Peterson and junior Claire McNally finished in second and third place at 5:13.09 and 5:13.81 respectively.
Depies was one of the multiple runners who set personal records at the meet.
“I think there’s just more excellent performances across the board,” Depies said. “There is definitely a jump between the previous week. It was really cool to see that people are just out there giving it their best.”
Hillsdale runners took the top four places in the 3000m run, with junior Sophia Maeda in first in 10:06.41 and freshman Elizabeth Wamsley in second in 10:14.02. The team earned similarly high spots in the 60m hurdles event as freshmen Shura Ermakov, Louisa Klaserner, and Grace Gottwalt claimed the top three spots at 9.17, 9.42, and 9.43 seconds, respectively.
“It’s cool when you watch somebody’s race, and you can tell they’re giving it their 100% effort,” Depies said. “So I think seeing that across the board makes me confident that people are going to do their best to try to achieve what we want to do as a team when it comes to bigger meets.”
Other standout performances from the women included the 4×400 meter relay and shot put. Junior Alanna O’Leary, sophomore Dakota Stamm, Ermakov, and senior Kajsa Johansson came in first in the 4×400 meter relay at 3:54.00 minutes, and junior Nikita Maines won the shot put with a 13.51-meter throw.
In the men’s competition, freshman Micah Vanderkooi took second in the 800m at 1:56.53.
“[Micah] was really aggressive. I thought he did a nice job,” Towne said. “I would say probably Micah was the most impressive performance there.”
The men’s team earned second in the 4×400 meter relay as well. Freshmen Jamahl Burke and Sean Fagan, sophomore Benu Meintjes, and senior Adam Wade finished in 3:22.07.
“As a team, there were great improvements across the board,” team captain and senior Ryan Thomsen said. “Especially given the current turbulent athletic circumstances, I believe our team is working hard in and out of practice to try to make the most of this year.”
When striving toward their team goal of excellence, the Chargers work from a simple equation: events plus response equals outcome, according to Towne. Since the only thing a runner can control is his or her response, Towne said, he makes sure the team responds excellently to whatever it faces.
“Overall, those are two really good teams that we squared off with on the men’s and women’s sides,” Towne said. “So it was a very good weekend.”
The men’s and women’s teams will travel to Grand Valley State University this Friday to compete in the Bill Clinger Classic Meet.
“Every meet is a process, and for the kids going to Grand Valley, I am excited to see the positive strides they take towards their best self,” Thomsen said. “In addition, as only a limited number of athletes are able to go, I’m very interested to see who of the group will step up and lead at the meet.”