On Jan. 11, the Margot V. Biermann Athletic Center officially hosted its first college track and field meet: the Hillsdale Winter Opener. It was also Hillsdale track and field’s second meet of their indoor season, as well as the first meet of the semester.
“Biermann is fantastic,” junior thrower Heather Lantis said. “The facility is so beautiful, really top-notch. It allows for higher degree of training to take place.”
The Hillsdale Winter Opener was followed by the Northwest Ohio Invitational at the University of Findlay on Jan. 17.
Both men’s and women’s track teams have performed well so far, despite the difficulties that inevitably follow a break away from campus training facilities, head men’s coach Jeff Forino said.
Three men have provisionally qualified for nationals: junior Maurice Jones in the 200 and the 400, senior John Banovitz in the 35 weight throw and shot put, and fifth year senior Brett Daley in the 35 weight throw.
At the Findlay meet, junior Amy Kerst provincially qualified for nationals in the 800. In addition to her, athletes in other categories racked up top finishes.
“A lot of athletes are just below those marks [to provincially qualify],” Lantis said. “So it’ll exciting to see how the season continues. It’s been a good start.”
The improved facilities allow Hillsdale to host more meets–including this year’s GLIAC indoor championship–which means the team will travel about half as much as in the past, Lantis said.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Forino said. “It has the widest, flat 200-meter track in the world, which is so much better on our bodies. And there’s so much room.”
One of the benefits of the new athletic facility is safer practice conditions. Pole vaulters don’t have to literally practice around the basketball team and long jumpers don’t have to cut across the track.
“It’s a lot less stressful because it’s less dangerous,” Forino said. “Now we have a nice throwing area, and curtains that come down so nobody will accidentally hit someone walking through. The track and field event areas are so much better.”
The track teams still have plenty of training and improving left in the facility for the indoor season, as they are not expecting to peak until the last third of the season, in time for the GLIAC tournament.
“Track is one of those sports where you train for your last meet, so you focus on doing things correctly and performing excellently,” Forino said.
“At the GLIAC conference meet, we compete wholeheartedly as a team. We have our individual goals throughout the season, and bettering ourselves betters the team,” Lantis said. “Throwers and long distance runners are very different, but we always support each other.”
