2021 G-MAC outdoor track and field All-Conference teams
It was a record-setting and All-American-caliber year for several of the Hillsdale College women's track and field team's best athletes, and the team continues pulling in honors to match it.
Fourteen Charger women earned All-Great Midwest Athletic Conference honors for the 2021 outdoor track and field season, the conference office announced on Wednesday, including five first-team honorees.
Freshman Shura Ermakov led the way for the Chargers with first-place finishes in both the 400m hurdles (1:02.26) and as a leg on the winning and G-MAC-record setting 4x400m relay (3:50.94) at the G-MAC Championship meet on May 7 in Owensboro, Kentucky, earning first-team All-G-MAC honors as a result.
The 2021 G-MAC indoor track and field Freshman of the Year, Ermakov also teamed with Alanna O'Leary, Dakota Stamm and Kajsa Johansson on a NCAA Division II indoor All-American 4x400m relay team, and with O'Leary, Stamm and Zalonya Eby on an outdoor All-American 4x400m relay team this season, serving as an integral part of just the third relay team to earn indoor and outdoor All-American status for the Chargers in the same calendar year at the NCAA Division II level.
Ermakov's teammates on the conference-title winning 4x400m relay – O'Leary, a sophomore, Stamm, a freshman, and Josee Behling, another freshman, also earned first-team All-G-MAC honors.
Hillsdale's lone first-team All-G-MAC honoree in the field events, freshman Eden Little, won the javelin at the G-MAC Outdoor Championships with a throw of 42.26 meters to secure the honor. The recognition caps a season where Little broke a 13-year-old Hillsdale College record in the javelin with a throw of 43.61 meters.
The Chargers' throwers were well represented on the All-G-MAC second team as well. Freshman Juliet Bernard took second in the G-MAC in the hammer throw (48.04 meters), and fellow freshman Peyton Panka, who was runner-up behind Little in the javelin (41.51 meters) to both earn second-team honors.
Also earning second-team honors was Eby, a sophomore who helped the Chargers' 4x400m relay earn All-American status at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships. The native of Maybee, Michigan earned runner-up honors in the 200m dash (25.03) at the G-MAC Outdoor Championships to secure the conference honor.
Six Chargers earned third-team All-G-MAC honors, including several graduating seniors who wrapped up their careers this spring.
Senior Maryssa Depies, who was an All-American in the mile during the indoor track and field season in the winter, took third in both the 1,500m run (4:34.33) and 5,000m run (17:25.54) to earn third-team honors from the G-MAC, and fellow senior Calli Townsend also used a third-place finish in the 800m run (2:13.83) to take home third-team All-G-MAC recognition as well.
Kajsa Johansson, the NCAA DII national champion in the 200m dash, earned a third-team honor outdoors from the G-MAC for her work in the Chargers' 4x100m relay (47.40) that took third at the conference meet, as did freshman Jillian Roney.
Two more freshman earned third-team honors as well. Margaret Scheske, a NCAA DII national meet qualifier, was named third-team All-G-MAC for her third-place finish at the G-MAC Championships in the 3,000m steeplechase (10:50.42), and Emily Gerdin took third in the triple jump (11.16 meters) at the G-MAC Championships to earn third-team All-G-MAC recognition as well.
With several athletes slated to return on these squads, Hillsdale hopes to continue building toward an even better year in 2021-22, beginning with the fall cross country season starting in September.