The Hillsdale men's track and field team took advantage of one final chance to compete on its home track as the Outdoor season winds down on Thursday, with Charger athletes achieving several personal bests at the team's annual Last Chance Classic.
The Chargers entered and placed four athletes in the 200 meter dash, with all four running collegiate best times in the race. Jacob Schmidt led the way in fourth place with a time of 22.14, followed by Benu Meintjes in fifth (22.29), Ian Calvert in sixth (23.20) and Joseph Ritzer in seventh (23.46).
Several other Hillsdale athletes had strong days on the track. Freshman Jamahl Burke won the 400m dash in 48.56, and senior Ian Brown took second in the 110m hurdles in a time of 14.25, just 0.01 seconds off the school record he set earlier this season.
Junior Morgan Morrison took second in the 1,500m run as well for the Chargers in his first race of the 2021 outdoor season, finishing the event in a personal best time of 4:14.52, and freshman Micah Vanderkooi finished third in the 800m run in a time of 1:56.78 as well.
In the field, Joshua Nichols took seventh in the long jump (5.96 meters) and first in the triple jump (13.69 meters), and teammate Charlie Andrews took eighth in the long jump with a personal best mark of 5.87 meters.
Hillsdale has one final meet on the schedule, traveling to Lee University in Tennessee for a last-chance meet this Saturday, May 15 with a small squad of athletes looking to clinch spots in a smaller-than-normal NCAA Division II National Championship field with one more strong performance.
Photo by Gwen Buchhop