The Hillsdale College women's track team has focused on one thing this season: progress. Friday night, it took a few steps forward in the right direction as they earned several personal records and season bests at the GVSU Open in Allendale, Michigan.
Hillsdale placed fourth as a team with 60 points in the one-night meet. Host Grand Valley State finished first with 132 points, followed by the University of Toledo (120) and Lewis University (100).
The 200m dash is one of the most commonly competed-in event. Freshman Kajsa Johansson battled through injury to take third place out of 59 competitors. She finished in 25.23 seconds.
In the 800m run, sophomores Abbie Porter and Calli Townsend saw great improvement. In a close race, the two took second and seventh, respectively. Porter's time of 2:14.86 is about a half second shy of NCAA Divison II provisional time. Townsend ran the race for the second time tonight to earn a four-second personal record with a time of 2:15.92.
In the mile freshman Amber Mango made her collegiate debut in the event. She ran a personal best time of 5:17 and took 20th out of nearly 60 runners.
A herd of Chargers took second through fifth place in the 3000m run. The group was led by junior Arena Lewis, who finished in 10:05. Next up was senior Ally Eads in third, in 10:12. Freshman Sophia Maeda had a strong kick to finish the race. She passed at least five runners in the last two laps of the race to earn a personal best time of 10:14. And in fifth, and fourth for the Chargers, sophomore Christina Sawyer finished in 10:16.
Freshman Alexie Day is becoming more consistent in high jump. She tied her season-best of 1.63m and took second out of 14 jumpers.
In shot put, freshmen Nikita Maines and Michaela Burkhauser took fourth and 11th, respectively. Maines threw for 13.66 meters, which is about half a meter short of the school record she set last week. Burkhauser set her own personal record tonight, throwing for 12.01 meters. She set a personal best in the weight throw as well, 15.10 meters.
The 4x400m relay made of freshman Melanie Boehm, Porter, Townsend, and Mango, finished second to Lewis University with a time of 4:01.97.
PHOTO: Todd Lancaster
WORDS: Calli Townsend