After scoring a school-record total of 58 points at the NCAA D-II National Championships, the Hillsdale College women’s track and field team left Kansas this weekend as the national runner-up. It was a dramatic meet between Hillsdale College and Lincoln University, with Lincoln ultimately coming out on top by two points. Out of the 10 female athletes that competed in the meet, eight came home as All-Americans, placing in the top eight in their events.
Senior Emily Oren’s mile time would have even won the D-I national championship meet. She was crowned the national champion with a D-II record time of 4:35.48 — setting a personal best by 10 seconds — which contributed 10 points to Hillsdale’s total score.
“I could not have asked for a better meet. I still don’t believe that that weekend happened,” Oren said. “The mile was a huge confidence boost. When I see other milers running 4:30s I think they’re elite runners, but now I’m one of those people.”
Oren aspires to run professionally post-graduation.
The 3K race resulted in three Hillsdale All-Americans and 23 points. Oren won the event with a time of 9:27.98, senior Kristina Galat came in close behind running 9:30.80 and placing second, while sophomore Hannah McIntyre placed fourth running 9:33.28, which was a personal record.
McIntyre and Galat earned another spot on the podium in the 5K. McIntyre placed third with a time of 16:13.91 and Galat placed fourth running a 16:17.09, which was a personal record. The duo scored 11 points for Hillsdale.
Before the meet, Galat was ranked lower than she had been in previous years for her events.
“This year was a little bit more nerve-racking, but a lot more fun having everyone there,” Galat said. “Leading up to it I didn’t let myself think negative thoughts. Especially having Hannah in the race and Coach Joe believing in me really helped a lot.”
The defending champions in the distance medley relay entering the meet, Hillsdale repeated its national title in the event and broke the school record with a time of 11:24.39. Junior Molly Oren ran the 1200 with a split of 3:34, senior Corinne Zehner had a 400 split of 54.7 seconds, sophomore Hannah Watts ran the 800 leg with a 2:14.6 split, and Emily Oren sealed the deal with a 1600 meter split of 4:40. The relay team earned 10 points.
This was Watts’s third time running the DMR and first trip to the national meet. Now, she is a national champion.
“It feels like all the hard work from this season finally paid off. I got to go with so many experienced runners like the Orens and Kristina. It was cool to be there and see them run and then to be a part of the relay and contribute to the team,” Watts said. “They were so confident before the race that I didn’t really have any room for doubt. Wavering wasn’t an option — we were going to go win a national championship.”
In the weight throw, sophomore Rachael Tolsma — who holds the school record — threw 18.59 meters, placing sixth. Junior Dana Newell stood next to her teammate on the podium as she placed eighth with a throw of 18.24 meters, as the pair recorded four team points.
“We both just thought, ‘Okay, we need to throw what we’ve been throwing and we’ll be fine,’” Newell said. “So we weren’t very nervous going into it.”
The Lady Chargers led the meet for most of the weekend, battling with Lincoln for the national title. Unfortunately, Lincoln put up some points in the very last race to ultimately beat Hillsdale by two points.
“It’s a little different when you’ve been to that level and get as close as we got and not win. I’m incredibly proud of the girls — it was just a little bittersweet,” head coach Andrew Towne said. “In reality there’s not a lot of programs that have won four trophies in the past two years. There will always be ebbs and flows but I think we’re consistently a top-notch program now.”
The team has only three weeks between the indoor championships and the first outdoor meet which will take place at Miami of Ohio over the first weekend in April.
