The Hillsdale College men’s and women’s track teams travelled to the Toledo Collegiate Challenge in Toledo, Ohio, on March 31.
Coaches said the teams used the meet as a tune-up for the season ahead. Good performances were turned in by many athletes on the team, led by senior Jacob Secor’s win in the 3000-meter run.
Secor’s time, 8:31.23, set both the meet and stadium records in the 3000.
Freshman Matthew Perkins, who also competed in the 3000, finished third in a time of 8:40.97. Senior Jeff Wysong finished fifth in the 2000-meter steeplechase in 6:13.98.
Men’s head coach Jeff Forino said sophomore Maurice Jones continues to do well in the 200-meter run, finishing third place in the event. Senior Jerry Perkins finished third in the 800-meter run and ran close to a personal record, Forino said.
“Jerry Perkins had an awesome 800,” Matt Perkins said. “He looked really strong in the home stretch and so did Wysong in the steeple, so when they are prime they should look great at conference.”
Junior Stefan Bernardi placed second in the javelin throw. Bernardi continues to have strong throws, Forino said.
Times and finishes for the meet are not all currently known. Women’s head coach Andrew Towne said those who managed the race did not do a good job. Towne emailed a race official to discern the correct results.
“There are people who are not in [the results],” Forino said. “People who won events who are not ranked.”
According to the results, senior Chelsea Wackernagel placed first and junior Kayla Caldwell sixth in the pole vault. Actually, Caldwell finished first and Wackernagel finished fifth for the Chargers.
“Everything is hand-written so it is a bad entry problem,” Forino said.
Besides the results’ being recorded incorrectly, Forino said that there was a slight delay because a hammer had hit one of the judges during the hammer throw. Because of the delay, Senior Catherine Nass said that she was only able to have two warm-up throws.
“This was my first outdoor meet of the season because I had an interview last week,” Nass said. “I had to let the fact that I didn’t have my normal amount of throws to warm-up get to me, but I was able to improve on each of my throws.”
Nass finished fourth with a throw of 47.95 meters and sophomore Shannon Neby finished seventh with a throw of 45.89 meters in the hammer throw. Sophomore Grace Leutheuser set a personal record in the event with a throw of 43.76 meters. Forino said that she is making great improvements.
Junior Victoria McCaffery finished eighth in the 3000-meter run in 10:27.53. McCaffery was named GLIAC Track Athlete of the Week last week for her performance in the Black & Gold Invitational at Vanderbilt University. Towne said it is great she is being rewarded for the hard work she has put forth and she is becoming a great leader for the team.
“McCaffery looked better and more aggressive,” Assistant Coach Amanda Mirochna said. “She got out strong and you can tell when she is locked in because she gets this face that she is going to kill someone.”
Assistant Coach R.P. White said since this was a smaller meet, he wanted to use it as a tune-up for his runners.
“It was a good week for consistency,” Nass said. “There were not very many personal records set, but people were very close to them and showed that we are solid athletes.”
