For the first time in three seasons, the Hillsdale College men's track and field team played host to a home invitational on Saturday.
The Chargers welcomed six teams to the first-ever meet in Hillsdale's brand new outdoor track and field facility at Hayden Park, and on an exciting day for the program, the Chargers generated some added excitement with strong results, winning 13 events and posting two new NCAA DII provisional qualifying marks.
In the throws, Ben Haas set a new personal best in the hammer throw with a winning mark of 64.88 meters, moving up to sixth in the nation in the event at the NCAA DII level with his improved mark and inching closer to the school record set by Jason Stomps in 2010 at 66.39 meters. Haas also took runner-up in the shot put with a provisional qualifying throw of 16.84, though not an improvement on his best mark this season.
Hillsdale's other big leap came in the high jump, where junior Cass Dobrowolski cleared a personal best mark of 2.14 meters, breaking the seven foot barrier for the first time in his career. The new mark moves Dobrowolski up to seventh in the nation in NCAA DII among provisional qualifiers and likely punches his ticket to the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships for the second time in three seasons.
Also in the field, Hillsdale's Connor McCormick cleared a new season best to win the pole vault, posting a mark of 4.81 meters, and Alfonso Garcia won the triple jump with a mark of 13.33 meters and set a new personal best of 6.20 meters to finish runner-up in the long jump. Freshman Thomas Flud also led a 1-2 finish in the javelin for Hillsdale, winning with a mark of 59.64 meters ahead of teammate Ethan Dorrell, who took second with a mark of 51.05 meters.
On the track, Hillsdale dominated the sprint events, taking the top three spots in the 100m dash and the top five places in the 200m dash. Drew Ransom won both events for the Chargers, taking first in the 100m dash in 11.06 and first in the 200m dash in 22.13. Owen Gardner finished runner-up in the 100m dash in 11.13, and Benu Meintjes took second in the 200m dash with a time of 22.26. Ransom and Gardner also teamed with Joseph Ritzer and Jamahl Burke to win the 4x100m relay in 41.91, the team's best time in the event so far this season.
Ritzer added to his relay with with a solo victory in the 400m dash for Hillsdale, finishing in 50.53, and Hillsdale went 1-2 in the 110m hurdles as well, with Sean Fagan taking first in 14.64 and Dobrowolski adding to his high jump victory with a runner-up finish in 15.29.
In longer distance events, Hillsdale's Micah Vanderkooi won the 800m run for the Chargers in a time of 1:58.24, and also teamed with Mark Masaka, Rhys Woodard and Noah Gazmin to win the 4x400m relay in 3:37.41. Gazmin was a double-winner for Hillsdale, taking first in the 3,000m steeplechase as well in 10:26.89, with teammate Caleb Bigler placing second in 10:52.09.
Hillsdale has one final week for tune-ups ahead of the G-MAC Championships it will host on May 1-3, with Chargers athletes heading to Walsh and Ashland next weekend for one final chance to get marks ahead of championship season.
Photo by Jordan Monnin