The Hillsdale College women's track and field 4x400 meter relay team will get the opportunity to earn All-American honors for the second straight season.
The Chargers made it out of a chaotic first heat in the preliminary round at the 2022 NCAA DII Outdoor Championships on Friday, hosted by Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.
Hillsdale's team of Josee Behling, Shura Ermakov, Dakota Stamm and Zalonya Eby finished fourth in the heat with a time of 3:45.58, overcoming a heavily crowded field that made clean exchanges difficult with strong individual performances to earn one of the nine qualifying berths to the finals on time.
The Chargers will be seeded seventh in the final, scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. on Saturday, and will look to improve on last year's eighth-place finish at the 2021 Outdoor Championships. Three of the four members of the 2021 team that earned All-American honors -- Ermakov, Stamm and Eby -- return, while Behling was the alternate last season and was also at last year's national meet.
Along with the 4x400m relay finals, Hillsdale throwers Nikita Maines and Averi Parker also will be in action in the shot put finals on Saturday, kicking off at 11:15 a.m. Maines is seeded fourth and will look for her first All-American honor, while Parker is seeded 13th and will be looking to add to her All-American honor in the shot put from the 2022 Indoor Championships.