Championship season hasn't even officially started yet, but based on the Hillsdale College women's track and field team's performance in tune-up meets this past weekend, the Chargers are more than ready.
Hillsdale had a stellar weekend of competition that started on Friday night at the Saginaw Valley State Tune-up Invite. Hillsdale entered just one event, the 4x400 meter relay, with a team of Gwynne Riley, Dakota Stamm, Reese Dragovich and Shura Ermakov, but that team tore up the track, winning the event in a time of 3:46.35 and breaking a school record of 3:47.45 set at the 2021 NCAA DII Indoor Championships in a runner-up finish nationally. That team included Stamm and Ermakov, as well as Alanna O'Leary and Kajsa Johansson.
The record-breaking result currently ranks ninth in NCAA Division II and should get the foursome a spot in the 4x400 relay race at the 2023 edition of the NCAA DII Indoor Championships held in Virginia Beach, Virginia beginning on March 10.
Hillsdale built off the momentum of that performance at its own home tune-up invitational on Saturday, with four more new or improved provisional qualifying marks. Sophomore Katie Sayles led a 1-2-3-4-5 finish in the weight throw for the Chargers with a new season-best throw of 19.45 meters, pushing her up to the seventh-best mark nationally, while senior Nikita Maines took second with a throw of 18.01 meters and Katie Weldy finished third with a personal best throw of 17.94 meters. Hillsdale also went 1-2-3 in the shot put, with a winning throw by Maines of 13.62 meters, and sophomore Averi Parker taking second with a throw of 13.54 meters.
The Chargers also got big results in the jumps. In the high jump, Reagan Dahlquist won the event by tying her personal best clearance of 1.67 meters, reaching the provisional qualifying mark for the first time this season, and Erika Mogelvang took third with a clearance of 1.57 meters.
Hillsdale also got a new provisional qualifier in the pole vault, as sophomore Kaylee Jackson used a massive personal best clearance of 3.70 meters to win the event and become the first Hillsdale vaulter this season to reach the provisional mark. Teammate Morgan Iverson placed second in the vault with a clearance of 3.55 meters.
Emily Gerdin won the long jump with a season best distance of 5.44 meters, and also took first in the triple jump as well for the Chargers, with a distance of 11.21 meters. Allison Nimtz finished second in the long jump with a mark of 5.13 meters, and Grace Chen took second in the triple jump with a distance of 10.53 meters.
On the track, Eleanor Minning won the 60m dash in 7.80 seconds, and also took first in the 200m dash in 25.65, ahead of teammate Anna Lamoreaux in second place (26.81). Both marks were personal bests for Minning. Hillsdale's Francesca Federici also won the 400m dash in 1:01.57, and Anna Roberts took first in the 800m dash in a time of 2:23.21. Louisa Klaserner won the 60m hurdles as well for the Chargers in 9.17, with Nimtz placing second in 9.68.
Hillsdale now turns its focus to the G-MAC Championships, hosted by Ashland on Friday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 25. The Chargers enter with a strong squad that has the potential to win the title, but will have to run well to take down defending conference champion and the favorite to repeat, Findlay.
Photo Courtesy of Hillsdale Track and Field