Last season the Hillsdale College men's track and field team had a solid indoor campaign, finishing third in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference championship and qualifying two athletes for the NCAA Division II National Championships.
The challenge for the Chargers in the winter 2020-21 campaign will be replacing both of those standout athletes – Ryan Thomsen and Joseph Humes – and continuing their upward trajectory as a program both in the G-MAC and nationally.
Hillsdale, which kicks off the indoor season tomorrow, Dec. 4, at Tiffin University's Alumni Open, has plenty of quality returners to accomplish that goal.
Leading the way is junior John Baldwin, a hurdler and heptathlete who set Hillsdale's indoor school record in the 60m hurdles (8.15) and traded the indoor heptathlon record back-and-forth with Thomsen last year.
Now in his third year with the Charger program, Baldwin has his sights set firmly on taking the program heptathlon record back for good, and earning a spot in the NCAA Division II Indoor Nationals for the first time in his career.
Hillsdale also has a deep mid-distance and distance crew to draw on. Senior Mark Miller placed in both the mile and the 800m run at the 2020 G-MAC Indoor Championships last February, while junior Adam Wier was third in the 5,000m run (15:07.63) for the Chargers at the same event. Both are back for the Chargers this season and are coming off of excellent cross country seasons as well.
Sophomore Sean Hoeft (4th in the 800m run) and senior Jack Shelley (3rd in the mile) also placed for the Charger mid-distance and distance crews at last year's G-MAC Championships and will look to improve on those finishes this season.
In the sprints, sophomore Jacob Schmidt (6th in the 60m dash) and senior Adam Wade (6th in the 400m dash) both return for the Chargers after placing in last season's G-MAC Championship meet. That pair teamed with sophomore Benu Meintjes and sophomore Ian Calvert on Hillsdale's 4x400 relay team that took second in the G-MAC, and all four are back for the Chargers in 2020-21.
To reinforce their returners, the Chargers brought in an exciting freshman class this season that adds to Hillsdale's depth up and down the lineup, and especially in the sprints and field events. Those new faces could be an X-Factor for Hillsdale this season depending on their development between now and the end of February.
Along with the season opener at Tiffin on Friday, the men's team has a full slate of meets planned in 2021, including three home indoor competitions. Hillsdale hosts the Sequential Border War, a one-day meet, on Friday, Jan. 22, its annual two-day Wide Track Classic on February 5 and 6, and a Tune-Up meet on Feb. 20, six days before the G-MAC Championships.
Cedarville is the host of the two-day 2021 G-MAC Indoor Championship Meet, beginning on Friday, Feb. 26. The 2021 NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships are scheduled for March 12 and 13 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Photo: The 2020-21 Hillsdale College Track and Field Senior Class. Photo by Gwen Buchhop.