It's been nearly two full years since the Hillsdale College Track and Field team had its last NCAA Indoor Track and Field All-American.
If the Chargers have their way, that will change in a big way when Hillsdale travels to Birmingham for the NCAA Division II Indoor National Meet on March 12 and 13 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Hillsdale is sending five individual athletes and one relay to compete in the national meet, and, with a reduced field size across the board due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all of them are close to earning a top eight finish and a coveted All-American honor.
The group is led by senior sprinter Kajsa Johansson, who is qualified in three events for next weekend's meet, and has a seed time in the top 8 in all three of them.
Johansson is seeded second in the 200m dash with a time of 23.89, just .19 seconds behind top-seeded Nicole Sreenan of Grand Valley State University, and will very much be a factor in the race for the national title in the event.
The senior from North Oaks, Minnesota is also seeded eighth in the 60 meter dash (7.58), and runs a leg on the third-seeded 4x400 relay for the Chargers (3:47.83). This is Johansson's third trip to a national meet as a qualifier -- she also qualified for the 2019 outdoor national meet in the 100 and 200m dash, and for the 2020 indoor national meet that was cancelled due to Covid-19 in the 200m dash. She's also the school record-holder in all three events.
Joining Johansson on the 4x400m relay are freshman Shura Ermakov, sophomore Dakota Stamm, and junior Alanna O'Leary, all making their first trip to an NCAA National Meet. The quartet broke a five-year-old school record in the event that was set by a team that earned All-American honors at the national meet, and this group is well-positioned to do the same as the third seed in the event.
Two other Charger women earned their second national meet qualifications -- senior Maryssa Depies in the mile and junior Nikita Maines in the shot put. Depies qualified in 14th place for the mile run with a seed time of 4:54.40 to earn her second trip to a NCAA National Meet. It's Depies' first trip since competing in the indoor national meet in the 5,000m run as a freshman in 2018, and a great way to cap her indoor track career.
Maines, meanwhile, earned a return trip to the national meet in the shot put and, seeded in ninth place with a best throw of 14.77 meters, will have a real shot at earning the first NCAA All-American honors of her career. Maines qualified for the 2020 indoor national meet in the shot put, but didn't get a chance to compete due to the Covid-19 pandemic leading to the cancellation of the meet, meaning she'll get her first opportunity on a national stage next week.
On the men's side, the Chargers are represented by junior pole vaulter Ben Raffin, who is seeded ninth in the event with a top clearance of 5.01 meters. Raffin has been close to making the national meet throughout his career, exceeding the provisional qualifying mark in the pole vault multiple times in past seasons, but he didn't reach a height capable of earning a spot in the meet until this winter, and now has a real chance to compete for All-American honors.
With several athletes in the national meet, the Hillsdale men's and women's track and field teams also brought home several All-Midwest Region honors from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association this week.
Johansson, Maines and Stamm all earned individual All-Region honors, and were joined by senior Calli Townsend, who posted a Division II provisional qualifying time of 2:14.40 in the 800m run and finished second in the recent G-MAC Championships. All four members of the 4x400 relay team -- Stamm, Ermakov, O'Leary and Johansson -- also earned All-Region honors.
On the men's side, Raffin picked up the All-Midwest Region nod for the Chargers, the first of his career.