For the Hillsdale College men’s track team, an unfortunate setback left the Chargers in an unexpected place following last Saturday’s meet at Grand Valley University.
Sophomore pole vaulter Ben Raffin was injured during competition and was diagnosed with a broken arm.
“We used it as a good teaching point,” head coach Andrew Towne said. “You don’t know how many opportunities you’re going to get, so you need to make sure you’re doing everything you can with every opportunity you do get. When something is taken away from you, you start to realize what was there.”
He said he challenged the rest of the athletes, “Your season is still okay, now what are you going to make of it?”
On the track, sophomore Jacob Schmidt ran the 60 meter dash and ended fourth with a time of 7.07 seconds.
Freshman Ian Calvert set an indoor personal record in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:59.40. “I was feeling smooth,” Calvert said. “I didn’t get out as fast as I wanted to, but I controlled my energy and got good results.”
In the 200 meter dash, Schmidt took eighth place running 22.54 seconds. Senior Ian Brown set his own personal best in the 200 meter dash with a time of 22.93 seconds.
The distance crew looked strong as senior Joey Humes ran for second place in the 3000 meter run with a time of 8:26.22. He was followed by teammate junior Jack Shelley who ran a PR of 8:38.44 and ended ninth.
Sophomore John Baldwin won the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.20 seconds. Brown ran near his personal best in that event as well with a third place finish and a time of 8.38 seconds.
To end the day, the 4-by-400m relay took fourth with a time of 3:23.61. The team was made up of Baldwin, Calvert, Schmidt, and freshman Jacob Ritzer.
“We were missing two of our best runners because of hamstring problems,” Calvert said. “Considering that, we did pretty well.”
“It was one of those meets where if you just looked at performances, that’s not what you would want by the end of the year,” Towne said. “But for this point in the year, we’re getting really close to where we need to be.”
Brown said the team will continue to be grateful for the opportunities to compete and work hard to stay focused through the remainder of the season.
“As a program we are constantly focused on personal excellence rather than individual performance,” Brown said. “I am very thankful to God that I have been having a strong season so far, but if this weekend proved anything it is that we can only ever do our best and can’t control the results.”
The Chargers return home this weekend to host the two-day Wide Track Classic in the Biermann Athletic Center. Events begin on Friday at noon.
