She ran with purpose said coach Amanda Mirochna of senior Amanda Putt’s national-qualifying race at the Northwest Ohio Open.
“I was able to pace, keep even, and use what I’d been doing in practice,” Putt said.
Putt finished the women’s mile run in 4:54, not only taking the win but also automatically qualifying for the national meet.
The Hillsdale Chargers, led by Putt, took control at the University of Findlay’s Northwest Ohio Open on Friday. The team took top finishes in most of the events.
Senior Will Danko finished first in the men’s 60-meter dash in 7.09. In the men’s 800-meter run, senior Jeff Wysong won in 1:57 with second place teammate senior Jerry Perkins three seconds behind.
“This was definitely a learning meet for me, but the distance and the throw guys did great,” said freshman Jason Van De Weghe.
Senior Nate English finished second to unattached Derrick Vicars after throwing 17.22 meters in the men’s shot put. Freshman John Banovetz finished in the top eight by throwing 14.34 meters.
Senior Chelsea Wackernagel and junior Kayla Caldwell took first and second place in the women’s pole vault after both jumped 3.65 meters.
Senior Catherine Nass threw provisionally qualifying marks of 17.12 meters for the women’s weight throw. Freshmen Shena Albaugh and Amy Kerst took first and second in the women’s 800-meter run.
In addition to that, both the women’s and men’s team won the 4×400 meter relays.
Junior Adrianna Yancho, who finished second in the high jump at 1.58 meters, was named GLIAC Field Athlete of the Week. This was an honor that she said she was her first GLIAC award and was surprised to receive it.
“Coach Towne had asked me during practice on Monday if I was ready to be GLIAC Athlete of the Week,” Yancho said. “It didn’t hit me until I began receiving texts from all my friends that I had received the award,”
Yancho is the second woman on the team to be recognized for this award this season. Wackernagel has also been recognized this season.
“It is always good when someone gets recognized, and it’s great to see how great the team is doing all across the board,” said Putt.
The team came back from break on Jan. 11 for a meet and training camp before classes started. Over the break each member of the team was given a personal training workout which was similar to what they already were doing in Hillsdale, Mirochna said.
Now back on campus, the team continues to practice hard with the mindset that the best is yet to come, Towne said. The team will be going to three of their largest meets of the season in the next three weekends at the Indiana Relays, NCAA D-II Challenge, and Grand Valley State University’s Big Meet.
