Twice an All-American in the pole vault last season, junior Ben Raffin has taken his time to round into form in 2022 for the Hillsdale College men's track and field team.
But if Raffin's performance at Saturday's Hillsdale Tune-Up Invite is any indication, the junior once again is peaking at just the right time.
Raffin cleared 5.01 meters to win the pole vault event on Saturday, his best jump of the season to date, and better than the 4.97 meter clearance that earned him All-American honors at the 2021 Indoor Championships.
That 5.01 meter clearance ties Raffin for 13th in NCAA Division II so far this season, and puts him in position to make a return trip to the 2022 Indoor Nationals as a provisional qualifier. He'll look to solidify his spot with another improvement at next weekend's G-MAC Championships.
Raffin's performance wasn't the only encouraging one for the Chargers this weekend, as Hillsdale brought home four event victories and scored 80 points to win the meet. Sophomore Ian Calvert won the 800 meter dash in an indoor personal best of 1:56.02 to lead a 1-2-3 finish for Hillsdale, with Sean Hoeft taking second in 1:57.22 and Jack Shelley third in 2:00.34.
Freshman Sean Fagan won the 60m hurdles for the Chargers, in 8.32, and Joshua Nichols won the triple jump with a distance of 13.85 meters, as well as a third place finish in the long jump with a mark of 6.45 meters.
Other impressive performances included Dagur Einarsson's runner-up finish in the 60 m dash (7.10), Oliver Samuelsson's runner-up finish in the 200m dash, in 22.37, and Jesse Westmeyer's runner-up finish in the weight throw (15.78 meters). Freshman Jamahl Burke also earned a runner-up finish in the 400m dash (50.29), just ahead of teammate Maliq Brock, who took third in 51.20, and Hillsdale's Caleb Bigler also took third in the 3,000m run (9:32.49).
The Chargers travel to Findlay, Ohio next weekend for the G-MAC Championships, taking place on Friday and Saturday, looking to bring home conference championships and solidify a number of qualifiers to the NCAA Championships in March in Pittsburg, Kansas.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan