The Hillsdale College women’s track and field team split up to compete in four meets in two states last week, bringing home several new provisional qualifying marks as junior Nikita Maines’ broke her own school shot put record for the third time this season.
Most of the athletes competed at the Tiffin Carnival in Tiffin, Ohio, while a few headed to California to compete in the Mt. SAC Relays, the Bryan Clay Invite, and the Beach Invite.
At the Bryan Clay Invite, Maines won first place in shot put, breaking Hillsdale’s record for the third time this season with a throw of 15.54 meters. Maines’ throw is the fourth longest in G‑MAC history as well as the third best throw in all of DII this season.
“I was extremely happy with my performance and I’m excited to see how the rest of the season will go,” Maines said. “My goal for the next meet is to just have fun and continue to get better.”
Junior Dakota Stamm, senior Zalonya Eby, freshman Reese Dragovich, and sophomore Shura Ermakov teamed up to grab fourth place in the 4x400m relay. Their time of 3:45.09 is the eighth fastest in DII this season.
Maines and the 4x400 relay team will both be competing for spots in the NCAA DII Outdoor National Meet as the season goes on.
Freshman Liz Wamsley ran a personal best in the 5000m run, hitting both her provisional qualifying time and the third fastest time in the G‑MAC this season with a time of 16:47.82.
At the Mt. Sac relays, junior Meg Scheske hit the provisional qualifying mark in the Open Division of the 3,000m steeplechase with a season-best time of 10:38.72. That time is the ninth fastest in DII so far this season.
Junior Gwynne Riley came in third in the Open B Division of the women’s 1500m run with a time of 4:38.19. Freshman Katie Clifford came in third in the Open A division of the women’s pole vault with a clearance of 3.66 meters.
At the Tiffin Carnival, junior Kaitlyn Rust came in fourth with a time of 2:16.18 in the 800m run, while senior Claire McNally took fourth in the 5000m run in a time of 17:43.84. Junior Judith Allison put together an excellent performance, finishing third in the 400m hurdles and eighth in the 100m hurdles.
In the field events, senior Alexie Day came in third in the high jump with a 1.63 meters.
Day said she hopes to put herself in a position to do well at conference and hit the provisional qualifying mark.
“I’ve been sitting at the height under provo for quite some time and have had some good attempts at it,” Day said, “I think I am really just working towards getting to that next height and being able to compete well at conference.”
Day said the weather proved an additional challenge for the group at the California meets.
“I think the hardest part for a lot of the events and high jump specifically was just managing the wind, it was a very windy day,” Day said.
Junior Emily Gerdin grabbed second in the triple jump with a mark of 11.33 meters, and said she encountered similarly difficult weather conditions.
“I wasn’t too happy with how far I jumped, but I did have good attempts; they just ended up being fouls,” Gerdin said. “I fouled five out of six jumps, but it was very windy, so I didn’t really have control over that.”
Gerdin said she is also trying to hit the provisional qualifying mark and make it to nationals, while also aiming to break the school’s long jump record, which her personal record is 0.13 meters away from.
“I’m pretty close, and I think I can hit it by the end of this year,” Gerdin said, “but that is definitely the biggest goal for me — also going after the school record, which I’m very close to.”
This weekend the team will be sending athletes to the Gibson Invitational in Terre Haute, Indiana and the Georgia Tech Invite in Atlanta, Georgia.
