After last year’s outdoor season cancellation, Hillsdale’s track and field team had its first outdoor meet in two years at the Yellow Jacket Collegiate Open at Cedarville University.
Senior Ian Brown ran a NCAA Division II provisional time in the 110 meter hurdles when he took first at 14.23 seconds.
“Basically I’ll just hopefully continue to run faster,” Brown said. “And I’ll move up the NCAA qualifying list. Right now I’m sixth.”
Freshman Sean Fagan came in fifth in the 110 meter hurdles behind Brown at 14.62 seconds. Fagan also finished first in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 53.80 seconds.
“I got to run, but I was just basically doing workouts essentially at indoor meets,” Brown said. “So it’s nice to actually be running for the team, running where it actually matters for more than just yourself and for more than just a workout.”
Freshman Ian Calvert, Fagan, junior Mark Miller, and junior Adam Wade won the 4x400m relay as well in 3:22.78.
“I think our 4×400, once it’s back together, has a good chance of going to the nationals,” Calvert said. “I think it’s going to be a great season. It’s good to be back on a 400 meter track.”
Calvert also finished third in the 800 meter dash at 1:57.31. In the 1500 meter run, Miller took second at 3:57.68.
“I think I have a lot of personal improvements to make in my individual events,” Calvert said. “I wasn’t expecting the amount of wind that we had, partially because we haven’t been outdoors for two seasons. I made a couple mistakes in our races in just not calculating the wind, but they went well overall.”
Senior Ryan Thomsen set a new personal record in the long jump when he took second with a mark of 6.95 meters. In the triple jump, freshman Joshua Nichols finished in second at 13.63 meters. In the pole vault, sophomore Ben Raffin took second at 4.66 meters.
On the women’s side, freshman Emily Gerdin won the triple jump with a mark of 11.15 meters and finished the long jump with a mark of 5.09 meters.
“I definitely want to qualify for nationals in triple jump,” Gerdin said. “I also want to maintain my G-MAC title in it.”
In the shot put, junior Nikita Maines finished fourth at 13.63 meters, and freshman Juliet Bernard took fifth in the hammer throw with a mark of 49.12 meters.
“I was trying a few different things out with long jump, so it’ll be a process to learn it,” Gerdin said. “But triple jump went well, and it was a good starting point for the season.”
In the javelin event, freshman Eden Little, freshman Peyton Panka, and sophomore Emma Shea all placed in the top ten.
Junior Calli Townsend won the 800 meter run in 2:19.25 with freshman Gwynne Riley behind her in third at 2:20.45.
“I’m just really excited for the season,” Gerdin said. “I’ve heard outdoor is a lot of fun from upperclassmen on the team, so I’m excited to see where I can get personally and how the team can do.”
The 4x100m relay team, junior Zalonya Eby, junior Kajsa Johansson, sophomore Alanna O’Leary, and freshman Dakota Stamm, won first in 47.43 seconds.
Freshman Meg Scheske took sixth in the 1500 meter run at 4:43.73.
In the 400 meter hurdles, freshman Shura Ermakov took first at 1:04.11. Freshmen Judith Allison and Isabella Gutierrez followed close behind in second and fourth place.
“Nobody has competed in an outdoor track meet for two years, so it’s funny breaking the rust and getting back into it,” Brown said. “The meet was very much just about learning and being in that atmosphere again. The learning curve between the first meet and the second meet is always huge, so I’m excited to see what happens this upcoming week.”
The Chargers will travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky for the Hilltopper Relays meet next weekend, April 2-3.
