A special achievement for sophomore Ben Haas was the capper to a solid first day for the Hillsdale College men's track team at the G-MAC Indoor Track and Field Championships at Ashland on Friday.
Facing a field that included five of the top nine male weight throwers in NCAA Division II currently, Haas prevailed over all competitors with a new personal best throw of 20.88 meters to take home his first conference crown. That throw moves him up to third nationally and makes him a legitimate contender for an NCAA Division II crown at the Indoor National Championships in Virgina Beach in two weekends. It also allowed him to prevail over the current second and fourth-ranked throwers in the nation in the weight throw in an epic clash that saw the top four competitors separated by less than a meter.
While Haas' winning throw was a personal best, it wasn't a one-off -- the sophomore put three of his four legal throws over his old personal best of 20.16 meters and had no throw shorter than 19.84 meters in the contest, showing a level of consistency that will give him a good shot at All-American honors down the road.
Hillsdale also had multiple scoring competitors in the jumps. The Chargers' Cass Dobrowolski placed sixth in the high jump with a clearance of 2.00 meters, just ahead of teammate Charlie Andrews, who finished seventh with a clearance of 1.95 meters.
In the pole vault, freshman Connor McCormick placed in his first G-MAC Championships appearance, finishing sixth with a personal best clearance of 4.70 meters to score points for the Chargers. McCormick made 4.55 meters on his last attempt, then got over the new personal record bar on the second attempt to secure the sixth place finish.
On the track, sophomore Alex Mitchell had a new personal record run in the 5,000m run to finish seventh for the Chargers, in 14:37.53. Hillsdale also had several athletes advance to Saturday finals in preliminary action. The Chargers put two in the finals in the 60m hurdles as Colsen Conway advanced in sixth in a personal best time of 8.38, and Dobrowolski advanced in seventh in a personal best time of 8.50 as well. Hillsdale's Maliq Brock also will race in the finals of the 400m dash after finishing in a personal best time of 49.28 in the prelims.
In the multis, junior John Baldwin currently sits in seventh in the heptathlon after four events, moving up in the standings after fifth-place finishes in the long jump (6.27 meters) and high jump (1.86 meters). Baldwin will compete in three more events in the morning to wrap up the heptathlon competition -- the 60m hurdles, the pole vault, and the 1,000m run.
Hillsdale will enter tomorrow's final day of the G-MAC Indoor Championships in sixth place, with 20 points -- but with the bulk of the finals still to be contested, the standings will likely change drastically tomorrow before the day is done.