The Hillsdale College women's track and field team double-dipped this weekend, hosting home events on both Friday and Saturday. Those extra competitions helped the Chargers rack up several event victories, personal bests and provisional marks over the two days of competition.
Friday -- Wide-Track Invite
The Chargers opened the weekend on Friday, hosting a small sets of team for its annual Wide-Track Invitational. Hillsdale excelled in the competition despite not fielding its full squad, taking nine first place finishes.
Once again, the main standouts for the Chargers were in the field. Freshman Morgan Iverson cleared 3.69 meters in the pole vault to record the first NCAA DII provisional qualifying mark of her career and win the event, with teammate Katie Clifford close behind in second with a clearance of 3.54 meters. In all, Hillsdale swept the top five places in the event.
The Chargers also had a strong day in the throws. Junior Nikita Maines won both the weight throw (18.20 meters) and the shot put (14.88 meters) for the Chargers, with teammate Katie Sayles taking runner-up in the weight throw (16.52 meters) and teammate Averi Parker finishing second in the shot put (13.92 meters). Maines threw provisional marks in both events and Parker threw a provisional in the shot put, though none of the three marks exceeded season bests set earlier by the two throwers.
Freshman Reagan Dahlquist won the high jump (1.64 meters) and Emily Gerdin won the long jump (5.04 meters) to round out an excellent day of performances in the field for Hillsdale.
On the track, Gwynne Riley won the mile in 5:05.19, the fourth fastest time in the G-MAC to date this season, to lead the Chargers, and also teamed with Margaret Scheske, Kaitlyn Rust and Vera Thompson on the winning 4x400m relay (4:11.73). In the 400m dash, Dakota Stamm posted the second fastest time in the G-MAC this season, 58.10, to win the event, with teammate Josee Behling close behind in 1:00.2. Freshmen Kayla Loescher and Brynn Edison also earned a 1-2 finish for the Chargers in the 5,000m run, with Loescher placing first in 19:24.26 and Edison second in 19:54.25. Grace Gottwalt also earned runner-up honors in the 60m hurdles for the Chargers (9.19).
Saturday -- Wide-Track Classic
With many athletes competing the night before, Hillsdale ran a smaller group at Saturday's Wide-Track Classic, though still with some notable finishes.
After winning the event on Friday, Dahlquist also took the high jump title on Saturday with a new personal best clearance of 1.67 meters, which doubled as the freshman's first NCAA DII provisional qualifying mark. Another freshman, Clifford, also won the pole vault with a clearance of 3.69 meters on Saturday, matching her personal and season best.
In the throws, Maines completed the weekend sweep with Saturday titles in both the weight throw (18.26 meters) and shot put (14.61 meters), with teammate Sayles taking runner-up in the weight throw (17.39m) and Parker taking runner-up again in the shot put (13.60m). Sophomore Emily Gerdin also won the triple jump for Hillsdale, with a distance of 11.32 meters.
On the track, freshman Louisa Klaserner took third in the 60 hurdles for the Chargers with a new personal best time of 9.18, and Hillsdale's 4x400 meter relay team of Shura Ermakov, Reese Dragovich, Nicole Marshall and Dakota Stamm won in 3:58.54 as well.
After three straight weekends at home, Hillsdale will hit the road next weekend, splitting its squad to compete at Notre Dame, Akron and Ashland in a variety of Friday and Saturday meets as the Chargers look to continue to build towards the G-MAC Championships at the end of February.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan