Sophomore Richie Johnston placed second in Steeplechase. Courtesy | Todd Lemaster

The Charger men’s track team traveled to Cedarville, Ohio, last weekend to compete in the Cedarville University Yellow Jacket Collegiate Open, and finished fourth overall with 63 total points.

Ahead of the Chargers was the Marian University Knights, who finished in first place with 155 total points, as well as G-MAC rivals Cedarville and Findlay University, who finished second and third, respectively, with 97.5 and 92 points.

Two event victories supported the Chargers fourth-place finish — a first-place finish by junior Alex Mitchell in the 3000m steeplechase at 9:42.01 and a second place finish in the same event by Richie Johnston at 9:44.37.Also competing in the steeplechase was senior Isaac Waffle, who finished at the 10:19.40 mark, which earned him seventh in the event.

“Cedarville was really fun and it was some good experience,” Johnston said. “It was really nice to be in a competitive environment again and though it is the beginning of the season, it’s always great to get a feel before the season starts to ramp up.”

Hillsdale also had three athletes compete in the 1500m run. Senior Sean Hoeft finished first of three at the 4:23.33 mark, which earned him 15th place overall. Freshman Seth Jankowski and senior Dylan Palmer finished 34th and 68th, respectively, at 4:32.47 and 4:48.31.

In the 400m dash, senior Benu Meinjtes earned the Chargers 5 points with a fourth-place finish at 50.95 seconds. In addition to Meinjtes, seniors Joseph Ritzer and Ian Calvert finished in 11th and 27th place overall.

Other distance competitors included sophomore Donny McArdle, who finished at the 33:44.96 mark in the 10000m run, which earned him third place overall. McArdle was followed by senior Caleb Oser, who finished in eighth place at 38:25.35.

Senior Charlie Andrews and sophomore Alfonso Garcia represented the jumps squad for the Chargers during the meet.
“It was a meet dictated by conditions, all of which were bad enough that the vast majority of people dropped,” Andrews said. “I along with five other brave souls jumped despite the win, and took enough to win.”

Andrews took first in the high jump, clearing 1.85m, while Garcia finished 30th overall in the long jump event at 5.22m.

“The meet was very windy, on the men’s side we put together some very nice that were technically sound jumps,” Garcia said. “In those conditions we struggled to get some power into them. It’s a nice place to start the season and we hope to bring more explosiveness into the next few meets.”

The Chargers will travel to High Point University in North Carolina to compete in the HPU VertKlasse Meeting March 31-April 1, and will head to the University of Illinois the following weekend to compete in the Fighting Illini Challenge.