The Hillsdale College women's track and field team began its sprint to indoor championship season in earnest this weekend, taking on its biggest meet and toughest competition to date at the Jud Logan "Light Giver" Invitational hosted by Ashland.
That tough competition pushed Hillsdale to strong performances and some phenomenal times, while also helping the Chargers set or improve NCAA DII Provisional Marks in two events.
On Friday afternoon, junior thrower Katie Sayles made the biggest impact for Hillsdale by winning the weight throw with a season-best toss of 19 meters even. That throw improved upon a previous provisional qualfiying mark for Hillsdale's indoor weight throw school record holder, tying her for the second best throw in NCAA DII to date. Senior teammate Katie Weldy took eighth in the weight throw with a distance of 17.26 meters as well.
The Chargers got event titles in two more Friday events. In the triple jump, Hillsdale school record holder and senior Emily Gerdin won with a leap of 11.53 meters, a season best, while in the pentathlon junior Neva Polo won with a season-best point total of 3,135 meters, taking first in the 60m hurdles, the shot put and the 800m run and finishing second or better in all five events.
Other standout performances on Friday for the Chargers included placing three runners in the top nine in the 5,000m run, led by freshman Anna Stirton, who finished sixth in 19:10.10, and freshman Eleanor Clark, who was close behind in seventh in 19:10.47. Junior Shura Ermakov also took fifth in the 200m dash in a time of 24.95.
Ermakov carried the fast times over into Saturday's portion of the competition, taking third in the 400m dash in a time of 56.30, and also running a leg on Hillsdale's runner-up 4x400m relay. Hillsdale's relay finished in 3:51.54, a season best and a provisional qualifying mark that currently ranks 23rd in the nation.
Also on the track on Saturday, Hillsdale had three of the top seven finishers in the 800m run. Nicole Marshall led Hillsdale's finishers with a fourth-place finish in 2:17.92, and sisters Megan and Anna Roberts finished fifth (2:18.62) and seventh (2:20.39), respectively, in a strong performance for the Chargers.
Junior Louisa Klaserner placed sixth in the 60m hurdles (9.00) as well for Hillsdale, while in the field, Reagan Dahlquist tied for third in the high jump with a clearance of 1.60 meters, Gerdin placed fifth in the long jump with a distance of 5.38 meters, and junior Averi Parker took seventh in the elite division of the shot put with a throw of 13.27 meters.
Hillsdale has another important weekend coming up, as the Chargers split their squad between the always highly competitive GVSU Big Meet and the Tiffin Open. Virtually every healthy Hillsdale track and field athlete will be in action at one of the two meets next weekend as the Chargers look to prepare for the G-MAC Championship meet in three weeks' time.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan