It took another record-setting performance, but Hillsdale College junior Shura Ermakov will be racing in her first NCAA DII Indoor Track and Field final on Saturday at the Robert Plaster Center in Pittsburg, Kansas.
Running in the fourth of five heats of the 400 meter dash prelims on Friday, Ermakov used a furious closing burst to hunt down West Texas A&M's Blessing Akintoye and cross the line in second, breaking her own school record in the event with a time of 54.274. That proved to be just enough in an extremely quick 400m dash prelims, as Ermakov beat out UT-Tyler's Aerin Thompson by five-thousandths of a second for the eighth and final spot in the final on Saturday. Ermakov's time was nearly eight-tenths of a second faster than the last time to make the 400m dash final at the 2023 Indoor Championships in Virginia Beach, a sign of how much stronger the field at the 2024 final is shaping up to be.
On Saturday, Ermakov will be racing for her fifth career All-American honor in the 400m dash, after finishing as an All-American three times in indoor and outdoor 4x400m relays, and also placing fifth in the nation in the 400m hurdles at the 2023 Outdoor Championships in Pueblo, Colorado last May. The top eight in the 400m dash will earn All-American honors in the event.
Along with Ermakov, Hillsdale had four other athletes competing in events on Friday. The Chargers were the only program in the country with three athletes qualifying for the Indoor Championships in the weight throw, with senior Katie Weldy and juniors Katie Sayles and Averi Parker all competing. Sayles had a strong outing, earning one of the nine qualifying spots for the finals in the weight throw for the first time in three trips to the indoor championships, and the junior came up just one spot shy of All-American honors, placing ninth with a mark of 18.78 meters, her furthest throw in three NCAA DII Indoor weight throw competitions.
Weldy, participating in her first NCAA DII Indoor Championships in the weight throw, took 13th with a mark of 17.71 meters, and Parker finished 15th with a throw of 17.45 meters.
On the track, junior Liz Wamsley competed in the 5,000m run as well for the Chargers, qualifying for the event for the second straight season and placing 14th overall with a time of 16:35.02.
Hillsdale has two athletes slated to compete on Saturday in the final day of the NCAA DII Indoor Championships, as Parker is the sixth-seeded thrower in the women's shot put, scheduled to take place at 6:05 p.m. ET. Ermakov, meanwhile, will compete in the first heat of the 400m dash final at 7:10 p.m. ET.
Photo by Drew Rich