The men’s and women’s track teams travelled to the University of Findlay this past weekend to compete in the GLIAC conference meet.
Grand Valley State University won the meet for both the men and women, finishing with 150.50 and 203.75 points, respectively. The Hillsdale men took fifth with 53 points behind 15 top-eight places. Eleven top-eight places totaled up to 59.50 points for the women.
“We placed much higher as a team than we were supposed to,” senior Amanda Putt said. “People got out there and shared support and encouragement for each other.”
Head men’s coach Jeff Forino said he was pleased with the effort the Hillsdale athletes gave and especially praised the the Chargers who doubled and even tripled in events throughout the two-day meet.
“My only expectation was for us to try hard, to work as hard as we could,” Forino said. “They did a great job with that.”
Putt was one of the athletes to triple.
She won the 800-meter run (2:10.51), the mile-run (4:57.28), and was part of the women’s second place Distance Medley Relay team — the same team that broke the Hillsdale DMR school record earlier this year. At the end of the meet, Putt was named GLIAC Female Runner of the Meet.
“[Putt] was incredibly impressive in the DMR,” said head women’s coach Andrew Towne. “When she got the stick, she was not in a great spot.”
Freshman Amy Kerst led off the in the DMR on the 1,200 leg. Although she was sick, Kerst managed to run a 3:44 split — a two second PR.
Junior Becky Caywood (1:00) and senior Jen Shaffer (2:19) ran the 400 and 800 legs.
When Putt received the baton for the 1,600, she was in fourth place and 75 meters back from third. Putt moved her team into second place in the last 400 meters and crossed the line for a split of 4:42 and a team time of 11:44.51.
After conversion, Putt’s 1,600 time was faster than her mile school-record time.
The men’s DMR team consisted of seniors Jeff Wysong, Michael Finch, and Jerry Perkins with freshman Matt Perkins closing on the 1,600.
The men’s team also broke the school DMR record earlier this season and were looking to drop their time to qualify for the NCAA DII National Championships. They needed to beat both GVSU and Ashland University and run about five seconds faster to qualify. Their previous fastest time was 10:04.54.
Wysong took the lead in the first lap. He tried to push the pace to make sure the race’s speed would be enough for the team to qualify — if they won. Wysong handed the baton off from second place at the end of the 1,200.
Finch and Jerry Perkins both maintained the teams second place spot.
“Our 400 leg did a fantastic job,” Jerry Perkins said. “He kept us right between Ashland and Grand Valley.”
In his own leg, Jerry Perkins had fallen into third when at 650 he “found a couple more gears,” went around Grand Valley, and pulled abreast with Ashland University’s runner at the exchange.
The 1,600 leg was a fight between Hillsdale, GVSU, and Ashland. After falling into third, Matt Perkins kicked with a lap and half to go. He passed Ashland on the back stretch and finished second with a split time of 4:13 and a team time of 10:05.00.
“It was a really fun race, really competitive,” Jerry Perkins said. “We finished higher than we were supposed to and we beat the top ranked team [Ashland].”
Notable performances from the women included junior Andy Yancho’s fifth place in the high jump (1.64 meters), Wackernagel’s fourth in both the 400 (58.95) and pole vault (3.80 meters), and the 4×400 relay team’s third place finish (3:59.26).
The women’s 4×400 consisted of Caldwell, Wackernagel, Caywood, and Schaffer, who also placed sixth in the 800.
Putt, including her two firsts and the second place DMR, accounted for 28 of the women’s 59.50 points.
“More often than not,” Towne said, “the production of our team this season started with Amanda Putt.”
He also praised junior Kayla Caldwell, who placed fifth in both the 200-meter dash (25.42) and pole vault (3.65 meters). He said the meet was “something to build on.”
“The key as we move forward is just adding more — more quantity of the quality we already have,” Towne said.
Forino pointed out that not just one section of the men’s team was scoring points but all of them. The sprinters, distance runners, and field event athletes scored 19, 23, and 11 points, respectively.
Top performances from the men included three top-eight finishes from sophomore Maurice Jones, a fifth from senior Nate English in the shot put (16.61 meters), and two broken school records: one from sophomore Matt Raffin in the 60-meter hurdles (8.42) and the other from sophomore Justin Fawley in the heptathlon (4,935 points).
The men’s distance runners generated 12 points in just the mile alone. Wysong took third (4:13.94), senior Jacob Secor fourth (4:15.07), and freshman Matt Perkins eighth (4:16.88).
Raffin, whose school record time placed him sixth in the 60-hurdles, said he and fellow sophomore Elliot Murphy have been pushing each other all season. They’ve traded the record back and forth and it was Murphy’s record Raffin broke at the meet.
Overall, Raffin said he couldn’t be happier with how the meet turned out.
“You have your struggles and kids who don’t do as well as they wanted,” Raffin said, “but the effort was great.”
