The Hillsdale College women's track and field team hosted its biggest indoor event of the season on Saturday, with over 500 competitors descending on the Biermann Center to compete in the annual Wide Track Classic.
The Chargers made their mark against tough competiton, especially in the throws, where Hillsdale had six different NCAA DII provisional qualifying marks in the shot put and weight throw alone.
Hillsdale swept the top four slots in the weight throw, led by Katie Sayles' mark of 17.90 meters. Senior Nikita Maines was close behind in second with a distance of 17.81 meters, sophomore Averi Parker took third in 17.20 meters, and junior Katie Weldy finished fourth with a distance of 17.10 meters.
In shot put, Maines took the victory with a mark of 14.28 meters, while Parker finished second with a throw of 14.22 meters. Parker's shot put mark was not only a provisional qualifying mark, but improved on a previous provisional mark, moving her up to 13th in the nation at the NCAA DII level in the event.
On the track, Hillsdale got a big race from its 4x400m relay team of Shura Ermakov, Dakota Stamm, Francesca Federici and Reese Dragovich, who took second in the race with a NCAA DII provisional qualifying time of 3:54.51, the 11th fastest time in the nation at the NCAA DII level this year.
Several members of the relay also had strong individual days on the track. Stamm won the 200m dash in 25.49, her fastest time this season and the third-fastest time in the G-MAC this year, with freshman Eleanor Minning finishing in sixth behind her in 26.49 as well.
Ermakov took fourth in the 60m hurdles in a time of 9.04, her best mark ever in the event, with teammate Louisa Klaserner also running a season-best time of 9.21 to finish sixth as well.
Federici, meanwhile, took third in the 400m dash with a time of 1:01.64, with teammate and sophomore Nicole Marshall placing fifth in 1:02.85. Minning also placed third for the Chargers in the 60m dash with a personal best time of 7.81.
Last, but not least on the track, Hillsdale's Liz Wamsley, a cross country All-American, ran in her first race of 2023 for the Chargers, taking third in the 3,000m run in 10:26.07.
In other field events, sophomore Reagan Dahlquist placed second in the high jump with a clearance of 1.62 meters, sophomore Grace Chen placed fourth in the long jump with a distance of 4.96 meters, and Emily Gerdin placed fifth in the triple jump with a mark of 10.86 meters.
Hillsdale next travels to Ashland for the two-day Jud Logan Light Giver Open next weekend, a big regional event that kicks off the Chargers' final month of preparation for the G-MAC Championships and the NCAA DII Championships to follow.