The Hillsdale College women’s track team split their squad again last weekend, with some athletes competing at the Miami Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Miami, Florida, and others at the OWU Marv Frye Invitational in Delaware, Ohio.
Six sprinters and field event specialists who had previously qualified for a national competition traveled down to Miami in order to take advantage of the warmer and more predictable weather at a time when conditions in the Midwest are harsh and adverse to top performances.
Senior captain Corinne Zehner earned a provisional qualifying time in the 100-meter hurdles, running it in 14.25 seconds, and placed 10th in the 400-meter hurdles, running it in 1:02.48.
Junior Dana Newell and sophomore Rachael Tolsma both threw provisional qualifying marks in the hammer throw and are now ranked 16th and 18th in the NCAA Division II national qualifying list.
Juniors Sarah Benson and Alex Whitford and freshman Kristin Freeman also competed.
“I thought our two hammer throwers did a nice job, and I thought Corinne made a good step forward,” head track coach Andrew Towne said.
Although she enjoyed the warm weather and getting to see other top athletes compete, Whitford said she wasn’t happy with her performance in the pole vault.
“I’m doing a lot of technical work right now, so I’m tearing down my vault and breaking it up into little pieces and working on it all because I came into college with a pretty terrible form,” she said. “We’re doing it step-by-step and it’s not fully put together yet, so it kind of didn’t come together for the meet.”
Like Towne, Whitford highlighted the performances of the hammer throwers as successes at the meet.
“We were really happy with how they did,” she said. “They capitalized on the opportunity.”
The remaining sprinters and field event athletes travelled to Ohio Wesleyan last Sunday. Middle distance and distance athletes had the weekend off.
While the weather in Ohio wasn’t as nice as in Miami, the athletes competed well, winning the 100, 200, and 400-meter dashes. Sophomore Maddie Estell also won the triple jump.
“Ashlee Moran did a really nice job. She came on during the end of the indoor season and is becoming who we thought she’d be,” Towne said. “Allison Duber hasn’t had a chance to race a good time because of the weather, but she’s been racing well.”
Duber, a junior, agreed with Towne and said a wind in the last 100-meters of her 400-meter dash on Sunday did slow her down, but still felt like she had a good race.
“I felt like it was a breakthrough race for me. During indoor season I went through a really big mental block, and I had to question altogether why I was running,” Duber said. “I could have run almost a :56, but again that wind on the home stretch killed me.”
After her performance on Sunday, Duber is looking forward to another opportunity to compete this weekend in what should be better weather.
“I’m dying to run a personal best; I really want to run a :55 or at least a :56 by the next meet,” she said.
Towne is also looking forward to the women’s home meet this Saturday — the first weekend this season where the whole team will compete at the same meet.
“Ideally, this will be the first weekend they compete at a high level in a decent amount of events,” he said. “Most of our top-notch kids will do something similar to what they would be doing at GLIAC, especially from the 400 on down.”
The Hillsdale Border Battle will take place at the college’s Ken Herrick track this Saturday started at noon.
