Competing in the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships and standing on the awards podium is nothing new for Hillsdale College women's track and field junior Shura Ermakov.
In her first two seasons, Ermakov qualified for all four NCAA DII Indoor and Outdoor Championships as a part of Hillsdale's 4x400m relay team, and earned All-American status as a part of those relays three separate times.
Those past successes notwithstanding, the 2023 edition of the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships still represented another big step forward for Ermakov. Competing in Pueblo, Colorado on Saturday night, Ermakov earned the fourth All-American honor of her career, but her first in an individual event, with a fifth-place finish in the 400m hurdles.
Starting in the second lane, Ermakov hung tough for the first 200 meters, then used a strong closing finish to blow past multiple competitors and secure her All-American honor with a time of 59.10, less than two-tenths of a second off her personal best in the event.
In the process, Ermakov became just the third Hillsdale College women's track and field athlete to earn NCAA DII All-American honors in the 400m hurdles, and the first since Corinne Zehner in 2016. It caps a breakout year for the junior, one that saw her earn provisional marks in both the 200m and 400m dash for the first time in her career, while also developing into a national force in her signature event, the 400m hurdles.
Hillsdale also had multiple throwers competing in the field on the final day of the 2023 NCAA DII Outdoor Championship. Junior Eden Little finished 14th in her first career trip to the national meet in the women's javelin, with a best mark of 42.26 meters. In the shot put, sophomore Averi Parker took 14th against a tough field, with a best mark of 14.34 meters, while senior Nikita Maines, the school record-holder in both the indoor and outdoor shot put, wrapped up an illustrious career by placing 17th with a top throw of 13.65 meters.
Ermakov's finish gives Hillsdale two All-Americans for the 2023 outdoor season, as the junior joins Liz Wamsley, who finished eighth in the 10,000m run on Thursday, in receiving the honor. Hillsdale will look to build off this finish in the 2023-24 season, with both Ermakov and Wamsley slated to return, as well as five other athletes who qualified for the national meet -- Parker, Little, high jumper Reagan Dahlquist, and 4x400m relay members Reese Dragovich and Francesca Federici -- to give Hillsdale a strong core to build around.