The Hillsdale College women's track and field team competed on its home track at the Biermann Center Friday night for the Conference Crossover. The Chargers saw a lot of improvment in its third weekend of indoor competition.
With a huge improvement in the weight throw, sophomore Nikita Maines placed second, increasing her personal best mark to a 17.32 meters, which is an NCAA Divsion II provisional standard. She also hit a provo mark in the shot put, in which she placed third with a throw of 13.56 meters.
Fellow throwers Michaela Burkhauser placed fourth in the weight throw and fifth in shot put. She earned a personal best in the weight throw with a mark of 15.61 meters, and threw for 13.52 meters in shot put. Freshman Katie Weldy finished sixth in shot put with a mark of 12.04 meters, and eighth in weight throw with 14.18 meters, which is also a new personal best.
In high jump, sophomore Alexie Day tied her personal record of 1.63 meters to take the win. And in the long jump pit, freshman Emily Gerdin took third leaping 5.16 meters. She was followed by Carlin MacDonald-Gannon in fifth (5.08m) and Dani Jones in eighth (4.90m). Senior Kathryn Bassette continues to make progress in pole vault as well, clearing 3.29m to take sixth in a competitive field.
Hillsdale's hurdlers had a strong showing on the track. Junior Carmen Botha is making her comeback after an injury sidelined her last year. She won the 60m hurdles with a time of 9.36 seconds. Freshman Judith Allison had a PR in the 60 hurdles of 9.49 second to take second. And finishing fourth was freshman Jillian Roney in 9.70 seconds.
The Conference Crossover is known for hosting its special 400m hurdle race, in which four Hillsdale hurdlers competed. Allison led the way to take first in 1:04.32. She was followed close behind by junior Calli Townsend finishing second in 1:04.97. Roney and Botha finished third and fourth, respectively, in 1:05.08 and 1:06.84.
In the open 400, freshman Dakota Stamm won with a time of 58.48 seconds. And sophomore Alanna O'Leary won the 200m dash in a season-best time of 26.34 seconds.
Junior Zoe Eby, coming back from injury as well, made her season debut, placing second in the 200m dash with a time of 26.82 seconds. Freshman Allison Nimtz took third in 27.58 seconds. Nimtz ran the 60 meter dash as well, taking first in 8.12 seconds.
In the 800m run, freshman Kaitlyn Rust won with a time of 2:23.71, and sophomore Amber Mango took second in 2:25.22.
More distance runners competed in the 3000 meter run as well. Junior Lauren Peterson won the race with a time of 11:02.12, followed by a crowd of Chargers, including senior Addison Rauch and freshman Natalie Martinson, in 11:03.03 and 11:10.11, respectively.
And finishing up in the 4x400m relay was Stamm, O'Leary, Rust, and Mango lapped the Lake Superior State Lakers to take first with a time of 4:08.73.
WORDS: Calli Townsend
PHOTO: Carly Gouge