With the indoor track and field season now well past its halfway point, the Hillsdale College men's track and field team saw some big gains on the track at Saturday's Jud Logan Light Giver Open hosted by Ashland.
Leading the way for the Chargers in the event was freshman hurdler Sean Fagan, who took fourth in the 60 meter hurdles in a season best time of 8.27.
The mark is just .04 seconds off of the provisional qualifying time and a sign that Fagan is moving in the right direction with the G-MAC championships on the horizon.
Fagan also teamed with Jamahl Burke, Ian Calvert and Benu Meintjes to take third in the 4x400 meter relay, posting a time of 3:20.94 in the event.
Two freshmen also impressed on the track for Hillsdale. Ross Kuhn took seventh in the 800m run in a collegiate best time of 1:55.78 for the Chargers, and Donnie McArdle took eighth in his first career collegiate 5,000m run, finishing in 15:28.18. Kuhn also teamed up with Sean Hoeft, Meintjes and Calvert to place fifth in the distance medley relay for Hillsdale, in 10:16.40.
Also on the track, senior Mark Miller took 12th in the mile run (4:16.01) and Oliver Samuelsson finished 14th in the 200m dash (22.48).
Hillsdale also had notable results in the jumping events, with three Chargers placing against tough competition. Junior Ben Raffin took sixth in the pole vault, clearing 4.88 meters, while sophomore Charlie Andrews matched his collegiate personal best with a jump of 1.95 meters in the high jump to finish fourth.
Sophomore Joshua Nichols rounded out Hillsdale's placers in the field, taking sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 13.33 meters.
The Chargers will split their squads next week, with athletes traveling to the GVSU Big Meet on Friday, and the Tiffin Dragon Invitational on Saturday, as the G-MAC Championships fast approach.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan