Junior Ben Haas placed first in the weight throw, threw the third-best mark in the nation, and secured the fourth-best in G-MAC history when the Hillsdale men’s track and field team competed in the Ashland University Light Giver Invitational Feb. 2-3.
Haas’s throw of 21.43 meters also puts him within .12 meters of the Hillsdale school record set in 2010 by Jason Stomps.
“The throws squad is just starting to hit our stride and hit the marks we expect. We are starting to train specifically for the championship meets and it is starting to get exciting,” Haas said. “The whole team is moving our attention to G-MACs and we are looking forward to performing on the highest level that we can achieve.”
On the track, fifth-year senior Joseph Ritzer ran a personal record of 22.69 in the 200 meter dash along with a fourth-place finish of 50.67 in the 400 meter dash. Fifth-year senior Sean Hoeft placed sixth in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:53.11. In the distance medley relay, Hillsdale Squad A made up of Hoeft, sophomore Seth Jankowski, fifth-year senior Benu Minetjes, and junior Ross Kuhn, placed ninth with a time of 10:10.71.
Senior Drew Ransom ran a personal best in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.11. Ransom said the Chargers faced tough competition in Ashland.
“We all knew that the meet would be a great challenge from a competitive standpoint,” Ransom said. “But, even more importantly, absolutely beneficial for our own personal progress, and that’s what we saw in many events on Saturday — a lot of great progress.”
In the field, Haas placed sixth in shot put with a mark of 15.41 meters. Sophomore Connor McCormick placed fifth in the pole vault with a mark of 4.7 meters. Junior Cass Dobrowolski placed fifth in the high jump with a mark of 1.95 meters.
Freshman Caleb Youngstedt placed seventh in the 5,000 meter run with a time of 15:32.28. He said the team had mixed results in a meet mostly seen as less important than bigger meets in the coming weeks.
“The meet went well, some got the marks they wanted, while others did not get what they were looking for,” Youngstedt said. “Luckily this meet was not incredibly significant, it was just another chance to get a solid effort before conference championships.”
Jankowski placed eighth in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:53.53. He said the team has a strong training plan going into the next few weeks and is preparing for the upcoming conference championships.
“From what I saw everybody felt pretty good going into the meet,” Jankowski said. “We didn’t let off the gas during training during the week prior to the meet because we pretty much only let off the gas when we are gearing up for conference championships.”
Jankowski said the team will keep up the training regimen to prepare for the big meets ahead.
“This week we will keep training hard and are looking forward to a Big Meet at Grand Valley to get some faster seed times for conference,” Jankowski said. “I think Coach White has been happy with what we have been able to do so far but he is definitely not satisfied, and neither are we.”
The Chargers will race next in the two-day GVSU Big Meet on Feb. 9-10.
“There’s a lot of great energy whenever we’re together, and you can see how our good culture produces the results we want,” Ransom said. “There’s a lot to look forward to.”