2022 G-MAC Outdoor Track and Field All-Conference Teams
One of the best performances at a conference meet in Hillsdale College men's track and field history has the Chargers bringing home major honors from the G-MAC on Thursday.
Hillsdale finished third at the G-MAC Championships with its highest point total in a conference meet since 1998 in early May, a big factor in the Chargers earning 12 All-G-MAC honors on Thursday as the conference announced its end-of-season awards.
Those 12 honorees represent the highest number for the Charger men's track and field program since Hillsdale joined the G-MAC in the fall of 2017.
Seven of those 12 honorees are first-team All-G-MAC, thanks to six event G-MAC Champions at the G-MAC championships in early May.
Leading the way is Hillsdale's 4x400m Relay team of sophomores Jamahl Burke, Sean Fagan, Benu Meintjes and freshman Maliq Brock, who won an exciting race at the G-MAC meet to earn the honor. Fagan also was an individual G-MAC champion in the 400m hurdles and a national qualifier in the same event, while Burke won the open 400m dash title as well. Meintjes also added runner-up honors in the 400m dash to his relay accomplishment.
Three more athletes earned titles in the field events for the Chargers. Junior Ben Raffin defended his G-MAC Outdoor pole vault title to earn first-team honors, and will go for his fourth All-American honor at the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships this weekend, while freshman Cass Dobrowolski won the G-MAC title in the high jump and will compete in his first-ever national meet as well on Friday. Freshman Kyle MacBeth also earned first-team All-G-MAC honors with a title in the javelin.
Three Charger men earned second-team honors for Hillsdale, as junior Jacob Schmidt, sophomore Dagur Einarsson and freshman Oliver Samuelsson all received recognition for competing on the Chargers' runner-up 4x100m relay at the G-MAC Championships. Burke was the fourth leg for Hillsdale in the competition.
Hillsdale also had two third-team honorees. Sophomore Alex Mitchell received All-G-MAC honors thanks to a third-place finish in the 3,000m steeplechase at the G-MAC Championships, while sophomore Micah Vanderkooi also earned third-team honors after taking third place in the 800m run.
Hillsdale will look to add to its honors this spring by minting some new All-Americans this weekend at the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships hosted by Grand Valley State University. The Chargers have three athletes competing, beginning today with Ben Raffin in the pole vault at 2 p.m.