The Hillsdale College men's and women's track and field program will continue an impressive recent tradition over the next week and a half.
For the second straight Olympic cycle, the Chargers have multiple former athletes who have qualified for the Olympic Trials in their respective home countries and who will compete for a spot on their national teams at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
Two of the four former Hillsdale track and field athletes competing in the Olympic Trials will be doing so for the second time – Amanda (Putt) Eccleston, a 2012 graduate, and Emily Oren, a 2016 graduate.
Eccleston will race first, competing in the 1,500m run in an event that kicks off the U.S. Olympic Trials on Friday, June 18 in Eugene, Oregon. The first round will be held at 7:03 p.m. EST on that night.
If Eccleston qualifies for the semifinals, she would run again at 9:40 p.m. EST on June 19 for a spot in the finals, which will take place at 8:05 p.m. on June 21. The top three finishers in the event finals will qualify for the Tokyo Olympics as a part of Team USA.
In 2016, Eccleston just missed making the U.S. team for the Rio Olympics with a fourth-place finish in the 1,500m run at the Olympic Trials, .03 seconds behind third place and the last qualifying spot.
A three-time national champion at Hillsdale in 2011 and 2012, Eccleston spent a post-graduate year competing for the University of Michigan after her time at Hillsdale, and has been one of the sport's elite in the United States for the last decade. She's recently run the fastest time in the world in 2021 in the mile at the Hoka Festival of Miles in St. Louis on June 3rd and looks to be in strong form entering the trials.
Oren takes the track in the 3,000m steeplechase at the Olympic Trials on Sunday, June 20, for a preliminary heat at 9:35 p.m. EST. If she makes it past the prelims, she would compete in the finals of the event at 11:47 p.m. EST on June 24, with the top three in that final qualifying for the Olympics in the event.
In 2016, Oren was fresh off her final collegiate season when she competed in the Trials in the steeplechase, taking 10th in her preliminary heat and failing to advance. Since that race, Oren has been training for another shot at the Trials and has run excellent times in the lead-up to the event, including breaking the event record in the 3K steeplechase at the GINA Relays back at her alma mater on April 22.
A nine-time national champion at Hillsdale College who dominated the steeplechase at the NCAA Division II level during her time as a Charger, Oren continues to be world-class in the event five years after graduating.
You can follow along with Eccleston and Oren's competitions on NBC Sports Network and NBC throughout the next week. A livestream is also available here.
Across the border, in Montreal, a recent Hillsdale College graduate also is competing in his country's Olympic Trials. Ryan Thomsen, who graduated this past year, is one of seven Canadians entered in the decathlon at the 2021 Canadian Olympic Trials, hoping to hit the entry standard of 8,350 points and earn a spot in the Tokyo Olympics.
Thomsen, who set the Chargers' record in the indoor heptathlon, won three G-MAC titles in the heptathlon and decathlon, and qualified for the 2020 NCAA Division II Indoor National meet, will compete in the 10 events that make up the decathlon across Friday, June 25 and Saturday, June 26 at the Claude-Robillard Sports Complex in Montreal, Quebec.
You can watch Thomsen's Olympic Trials quest live online for free at athleticscanada.tv.
One more Charger athlete who already competed in the Trials for the upcoming Tokyo Games is Luke Hickman. A distance runner for Hillsdale who graduated in 2015, Hickman was the 2015 GLIAC outdoor champion in the 3K Steeplechase and was in the top 30 at the GLIAC Men's Cross Country Championship Meet three times in his career, with a best finish of 11th.
Now a marathoner, Hickman made the U.S. Olympic Trials for the marathon and finished 156th in a time of 2 hours, 33 minutes, 34 seconds in his first attempt at making the U.S. Olympic team in a qualifying race at Centennial Park in Atlanta, Georgia on Feb. 29, 2020, prior to the pandemic.
These four athletes continue a notable recent trend of former Chargers competing the Olympic Trials. In 2016, for the Rio Olympics, four Charger alumni also competed in the trials for the countries, with pole vaulter and 2013 grad Kayla Caldwell joining Eccleston and Oren in the U.S. Olympic Trial, and 2015 grad and national champion hurdler Maurice Jones competing in the 400-meter hurdles at the national trial for Great Britain as well.
Even given all the many accomplishments for Hillsdale College's track and field program in the last decade, there's no better sign of the excellence the Chargers shoot to attain in the sport than the continued representation by Charger alumni of the program at the highest levels of world competition.