The Charger men's track team looked strong across the board at the Hillsdale Wide Track Classic this weekend at the Margot V. Biermann Center. Hillsdale took second overall as a team with 85 points. G-MAC rival Tiffin University earned first with 172.
In the heptathlon, sophomore Ryan Thomsen and John Baldwin earned NCAA Division II provisional marks. Thomsen took first in the event with 4927 points, while Baldwin was right behind in second with 4743 points. Baldwin took first in the 60m dash and the 60m hurdles. Thomsen earned got second in the shot put and high jump, and earned first place in the 1000m run.
Freshman Ben Raffin has competed in four meets this season, earning a personal best in three of them. Today was another one of those days. He soared passed the provisional mark of 4.73m and vaulted to second place with 4.87 a mark of meters.
Junior Ian Brown raced well in the 60m hurdles to take third place with a time of 8.69 seconds. He also placed 16th in the 200m dash with a time of 23.50, just two tenths of a second shy of his personal best.
In the 60m dash freshman Jacob Schmidt tied his personal best time of 6.99 second to take fourth place among some of the nation's best Division II sprinters. Schmidt also ran well in the 200m dash, taking fifth place with a time of 22.68 seconds.
Hillsdale had a great showing in a competitive 800m run. The top five runners finished within a half second of each other, and among those top five were sophomore Jack Shelly and freshman Mark Miller. Shelley snuck into third with a strong finish and a time of 1:57.67 and Miller stole fourth in 1:57.72.
Sophomore Morgan Morrison won the 3000m run with a time of 9:11.87. This was his first time racing the event for the season and he was just four seconds off his personal best.
The men's distance medley relay, made up of Shelly, senior Levi Wyse, sophomore Adam Wade and junior Joey Humes took third place in 10:15.63.
And in the final event, Wyse, Wade, Schmidt, and freshman Peter Curtis teamed up to run the 4-by-400 meter relay. They took first place with a time of 3:26.19.
PHOTO: Todd Lancaster
WORDS: Calli Townsend