The Hillsdale College women's track and field team continued its build-up towards championship season with another strong performance at its home Hillsdale Winter Classic meet on Friday at Saturday.
Sandwiched between Hillsdale's opener with Ashland and Findlay and the program's annual Wide Track Classic, this weekend's meet was a lower key affair, with Hillsdale only racing a partial squad. However, there were still several notable performances for the Chargers.
Hillsdale continued its strong season in the throws, taking the first five places in the weight throw competition. Nikita Maines won the event with a throw of 18.47 meters, while teammate Katie Sayles was close behind with a personal best throw of 18.09 meters. Already provisionally qualified for the NCAA DII nationals in the event, Salyes' throw this Saturday is the 13th best in the country so far, increasing the possibility of the Chargers sending two throwers to the national meet. Maines and Sayles also went 1-2 in the shot put for the Chargers, with Maines throwing 13.91 meters and Sayles throwing 12.63 meters.
In the 60 meter hurdles, Louisa Klaserner ran a personal-best time of 9.19 to win the event for Hillsdale, the sixth fastest time in the G-MAC this year. Teammate Shura Ermakov finished in 9.35 to take third in the event as well.
Hillsdale also got first place finishes from Emily Gerdin in the triple jump (11.42 meters), Grace Chen in the long jump (4.94 meters), and Neva Polo in the five-event pentathlon, contested on Friday (2,811 points). Polo beat out teammate Judith Allison to win the pentathlon, with Allison taking second with 2,542 points.
In other notable finishes for Hillsdale, high jumpers Reagan Dahlquist and Alexie Day tied for second place in the event with a clearance of 1.59 meters, and Allie Eriksen took second in the 200m dash for the Chargers in 27.37.
Hillsdale also had finshers in the pole vault. Freshman Katie Clifford took fifth with a clearance of 3.54 meters in a tough field dominated by elite competitors from Findlay, while fellow freshman Isabella Socha took sixth with a personal-best clearance of 3.39 meters.
The Chargers will host the Hillsdale Wide Track Invitational on Friday and the Wide Track Classic on Saturday of next week for their next action, splitting what was a two-day meet into two events against two separate fields.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan