Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
With the G-MAC Championships only two weeks away, the Hillsdale College men’s track team completed one of their biggest challenges of the season last weekend.
With the whole team going to the Jud Logan Open for both Friday and Saturday, Friday’s events were pushed back to Saturday.
“Basically we had no choice but to practice on Friday once we arrived,” Head Coach Andrew Towne said. “I thought we did a good job managing that, especially because a lot of what we planned was, we’ll do this on Friday and this on Saturday.”
Freshman Sean Fagan said the events being crammed into one day ruined the effect of a two day meet.
“We were hoping to feel that effect to prepare our bodies to compete back to back days at conference, but in general it didn’t change much,” Fagan said.
Fagan placed fourth in the 60 meter hurdles with his best time of the season at 8.27.
“Fagan continues to make nice strides for us,” Towne said. “He was a freshman last year that did a lot for us and just narrowly missed going to the NCAA Championships and he’s really started to get into that form again recently.”
Fagan, along with sophomore Jamahl Burke, junior Ian Calvert, junior Benu Meintjes earned third in the 4×400 meter relay with a time of 3:20.94.
“I’m getting confidence because I’m seeing the process pay off just like it did last year,” Fagan said.
Freshman Ross Kuhn took seventh in the 800 meter run with his collegiate best time of 1:55.78, while freshman Donnie McArdle nabbed eighth in the first 5,000 meter run in his college career, with a time of 15:28.18. Senior Mark Miller took 12th in the mile run with a time of 4:16.01, while freshman Oliver Samuelsson finished 14th in the 200 meter dash with a 22.48 time.
Kuhn, junior Sean Hoeft, Meintjes, and Calvert placed fifth in the distance medley relay with a time of 10:16.40.
Sophomore Charlie Andrews matched his college personal best in the high jump with a jump of 1.95 meters to finish fourth.
“It was a confidence boost to get a couple of nice clearances,” Andrews said. “I haven’t changed much besides my mental prep. I’ve just been focusing on really enjoying the experience and being the best athlete I can for my team instead of worrying about personal scores and status. Getting myself out of the way has really changed the way I approach the sport in the last month.”
Junior Ben Raffin took sixth in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.88 meters.
“Raffin continues to do a good job for us,” Towne said. “I was impressed with him, he was a good example of managing what could have been chaotic events, where he had to wait until 7:00 at night.”
Sophomore Josh Nichols took sixth in the triple jump with 13.33 meters.
The Chargers will split up to take on the Great Valley State University Big Meet on Friday, and then the Tiffin Dragon Invitational on Saturday.
“We have a couple different goals, it’s something that we address on a regular basis,” Towne said. “We’re actually getting ready to meet tomorrow night. One of the things I think is really important is not only talking about those things but keeping things updated as well. There’s more work to do. This is really the last full weekend for us before the conference championship, so we’re hoping to get a lot of good things done this weekend.”
Fagan said the team is exactly where the coaches want it to be.
“We talk often about how our training is geared toward having us at the top shape to perform during the championship season,” Fagan said. “This is the best part of the year, because as long as we’re taking care of our bodies outside of practice time, we’re going to consistently see our performances getting better.”
Fagan said he is excited for next week.
“Our training is starting to pay off, which is exciting, and only motivates me to prepare even more thoroughly for these next couple weeks until conference,” Fagan said.
