Every year, the competition in the G-MAC keeps getting tougher for the Hillsdale College men's track and field team.
And every year so far, the Chargers have found a way to raise the bar.
Despite the addition of a nationally ranked Ashland squad to the competition at this year's G-MAC Outdoor Championship Meet hosted at Owensboro, Kentucky, Hillsdale not only matched its best finish in a G-MAC outdoor meet by taking third as a team, but also scored its most points in an outdoor conference championship meet since 1998.
The Chargers finished with 126 points, three more than fourth place Tiffin, who Hillsdale had never previously beaten in a G-MAC Championship meet, and 4.5 points behind runner-up Ashland, thanks to six G-MAC individual titles.
Hillsdale entered Friday with two titles already won, thanks to Cass Dobrowolski's win in the high jump and Ben Raffin's win in the pole vault on Thursday, and quickly added to the total. Sophomore Sean Fagan, who earned Co-Athlete of the Meet honors for the Chargers, took the title in the 400 meter hurdles, winning in 52.38, a new personal best, a NCAA DII Provisional Qualifying time, and the 18th-fastest time in NCAA DII this season.
Fagan also added a runner-up finish in the 110m hurdles (14.56), and ran the leadoff leg on Hillsdale's title-winning 4x400m relay, teaming with Jamahl Burke, Maliq Brock and Benu Meintjes to take first in 3:14.65. That gave the sophomore from North Scituate, Rhode Island 20.5 points by himself, tying him with Ashland's Aaron Banks for Athlete of the Meet.
Burke and Meintjes had impressive individual accomplishments of their own on Friday, giving the Chargers a 1-2 finish in the 400m dash that helped push the Chargers up the standings with 18 combined points. Burke just edged out Meintjes at the line for the title, winning in 47.82 to Meintjes' 47.84. Both times were collegiate bests for the two runners.
Hillsdale's final G-MAC title came in the field, where freshman Kyle MacBeth emerged out of a crowded field of javelin contenders with a personal best throw of 58.26 meters to take the crown, and give the Chargers an even split of three track event and three field event titles on the week.
A few more notable finishes helped the Chargers battle their way into third place. Burke teamed with sprinters Jacob Schmidt, Dagur Einarsson and Oliver Samelsson to take runner-up honors in the 4x100m relay in 41.03, setting a NCAA DII provisional qualifying time in the event with the 41st best mark in NCAA DII this year. Einarsson also took seventh in the open 100m dash in 10.89 to score points for the Chargers as well.
Hillsdale had three runners place in the 800m dash, led by sophomore Micah Vanderkooi's third-place finish in 1:54.09. Sophomore Sean Hoeft took fourth in 1:54.71 and freshman Ross Kuhn took fifth in 1:54.74 as well, with all three runners running collegiate best times in Friday's final.
Senior Mark Miller gutted out a seventh place finish in the 1,500m run, in 4:00.55, to score valuable points as well for Hillsdale, while in the field sophomore Joshua Nichols earned a fifth-place finish in the triple jump with a career-best mark of 14.32 meters as well.
Coming off its most impressive conference meet showing in over two decades, Hillsdale now turns its focus to the NCAA DII National Championships, hosted by Grand Valley St. University in Allendale, Michigan at the end of May, and getting as many athletes as possible qualified to compete for national championships and All-American honors.
The Chargers will run in two Last Chance meets next weekend, on Friday at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois and on Saturday at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, looking to secure the marks needed to make the national championships in a variety of events.
Photo Courtesy of Kentucky Wesleyan Athletics