The Hillsdale College women's track and field team couldn't quite bring home a repeat title at the 2023 G-MAC Outdoor Championships in Ashland on Friday.
But a big day filled with numerous huge performances meant it was far from a wasted week for Hillsdale. The Chargers added three more G-MAC event titles to their haul on Friday, set three athletes set new NCAA DII provisional qualifying marks, and saw a school record that was over a decade old fall.
Hillsdale took second in the event as a team, with 157 points, behind champion Findlay's total of 189.75.
The record-setter was junior Shura Ermakov, who ran away with the 400m hurdles title in a stunning performance that saw her cut nearly two full seconds off her previous best time. Ermakov's time of 58.96 sailed past a long-standing Hillsdale College outdoor record in the event of 59.30 set by Jazmin Williams in 2009, and also obliterated the previous G-MAC record of 59.61 previously held by Kylie Ray of Findlay, who Ermakov beat for the title.
That mark not only improves Ermakov's NCAA DII Provisional Qualifying time in the race, but all but locks the junior into the 2023 NCAA DII Outdoor Championships field and, as the third-fastest time in NCAA DII competition this year, puts her on a short list of contenders in the event.
Ermakov placed in two more events as well for the Chargers on top of the 400m hurdles, taking fifth in the 100m hurdles in a personal best time of 14.48, just one-hundredth of a second behind teammate Louisa Klaserner, who took fourth in 14.47, and ahead of teammate Judith Allison, who placed sixth in 15.20. Allison also took seventh in the 400m hurdles behind Ermakov, finishing in 1:05.76.
The other event Ermakov played a key role in was Hillsdale's runner-up performance in the 4x400m relay, where the junior teamed with Reese Dragovich, Dakota Stamm and Francesca Federici to finish in 3:47.73. That finish was also a NCAA DII Provisional Qualifying mark, and Hillsdale's 4x400 team now ranks 33rd nationally.
The Chargers brought home two other event titles. In the field, sophomore Reagan Dahlquist cleared 1.70 meters in the high jump, a new personal best, to take the title, and also move into a tie for 15th at the NCAA DII level in the event with her first provisional mark of the season.
On the track, Hillsdale junior Gwynne Riley led a 1-2 finish for the Chargers in the 1,500m run, winning the race in 4:28.59 and improving her provisional mark in the event to 37th in the nation at the NCAA DII level. Teammate Liz Wamsley was close behind in second with a personal best time of 4:33.73 in the event.
Wamsley ran a tough double for the Chargers to earn a runner-up finish in a second event, placing second in the 5,000m run with a time of 17:09.44 as well. Teammate Margaret Scheske, fresh off her G-MAC title in the steeplechase on Thursday night, also came back on short rest to take fifth in the event for the Chargers, in a personal best time of 17:29.13.
Hillsdale also had multiple scoring runners in the 800m run to cap a strong showing for the Chargers' distance and mid-distance crews. Dragovich took third in a time of 2:10.73 for Hillsdale in the two-lap event, while teammate Nicole Marshall placed fifth with a personal best time of 2:13.49.
Also on the track for Hillsdale, senior Dakota Stamm placed seventh in the 400m run with a time of 57.74, and Hillsdale's 4x100m relay team of Federici, Tara Townsend, Klaserner and Kaylee Jackson took sixth with a time of 49.55.
In the field for the Chargers on Friday, sophomore Averi Parker took seventh in the discus with a throw of 42.79 meters, and Grace Chen placed eighth in the triple jump with a distance of 10.81 meters.
With the conference championship meet out of the way, Hillsdale now turns its focus to the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships and one final week of Last Chance Meets as the Chargers look to qualify as many athletes as possible to send out to Pueblo, Colorado for the three-day event beginning on May 26. While several Hillsdale athletes are safely in the field, others reside on the bubble and will look to solidify their place over the next eight days as Hillsdale travels across the midwest to a variety of meets to give them the chance.
Photo by Michael Hopkins