The Hillsdale women’s track and field team dominated the G-MAC indoor championship on Feb. 26 and 27 with 188 points, winning the conference and securing their second consecutive year as champions.
While the women’s team won last year by just over one point, they overtook Findlay by 40 points last weekend. This is their third win of the last four seasons.
“Winning the indoor title was a great accomplishment,” senior Kajsa Johansson said. “It felt great to see everyone putting their all into it for the team as a whole.”
Johansson set a new school and G-MAC record in the 200 meter dash, taking first in 24.26 seconds. She also took second in the 60 meter dash in 7.62 seconds.
“Winning really showed us all how important every individual is to the team, and how much our responses to any given event impact the outcome,” Johansson said.
Senior Zalonya Eby and sophomore Dakota Stamm also placed in the 200 meter dash, finishing second and third in 25.32 and 25.75 seconds, respectively.
“The 200 went really well,” Stamm said. “It was a lot of fun to be on the podium with my teammates.”
Stamm also won a title for the women’s team in the 400 meter race and took first in 57.63 seconds. Freshman Shura Ermakov, who received G-MAC Female Freshman Athlete of the Meet, finished second behind Stamm in 58.62 seconds. Ermakov took sixth in the 60 meter hurdles in 9.33 seconds as well, becoming one of four Chargers to place in that event.
Eby and Stamm later joined junior Alanna O’Leary and sophomore Judith Allison in the 4x400m relay. In last year’s championship when Stamm was waiting to run the anchor leg of the 4x400m relay, the announcer said that the event would decide the outcome of the conference.
“This year, the meet was exciting, but it was a little bit more comfortable to know that it wasn’t down to the 4×400,” Stamm said. “It wasn’t, ‘Oh my gosh, we have to win this event to win this meet.’ It wasn’t as stressful, and I really appreciated that.”
Seniors Calli Townsend and Maryssa Depies, and junior Claire McNally each took runner-up in their events, the 800, 3000, and 5000-meter runs. Sophomore Meg Scheske took fourth in the mile, leading three other placing Chargers.
“Anytime you go into a championship, there’s a lot of different people that play a role,” Towne said. “Every point is really important.”
Sophomore Emily Gerdin won the triple jump with her best mark, 11.56 meters, and took fifth in the long jump at 5.34 meters. Senior Alyssa Viola made a career-best mark of 3.22 meters in eighth place in the pole vault.
In the weight throw, junior Nikita Maines took third with a throw of 15.81 meters and freshman Juliet Bernard took fifth at 15.07 meters. Maines placed fourth in the shot put ahead of freshmen Katie Sayles and Peyton Panka in fifth and sixth.
“We’re really happy with the girls,” head coach Andrew Towne said. “That’s kind of what we expected on paper going into the meet.”
Several Chargers will travel to Birmingham, Alabama, for the NCAA Division II National Championship meet in two weeks. Johansson will compete in the 60 and 200-meter dashes, and then join O’Leary, Ermakov, and Stamm for the 4x400m relay. Junior Nikita Maines will compete in shot put and senior Maryssa Depies will race the mile.