THe Hillsdale College women's track and field team showed its strength in its first full outdoor meet of the season over the weekend, winning seven titles, setting four meet records and posting three provisional qualifying marks at the Lee University Invite in Tennessee.
Leading the way on the track for Hillsdale was junior Shura Ermakov, who set a meet record and ran the sixth fastest time at the NCAA DII level this season to win the 400m hurdles in 1:01.48. A 2023 All-American outdoors in the 400m hurdles and an All-American indoors earlier this month in the 400m dash, Ermakov also just missed a provisional mark in the 100m hurdles, taking runner-up honors in 14.22. Teammate Neva Polo also placed in both races, taking fifth in the 400m hurdles (1:10.17) and eighth in the 100m hurdles (15.93).
Hillsdale also had a great meet in the field events. Just a week after a big personal best in the hammer throw, senior Katie Weldy nearly broke the school record in the event with a throw of 57.31 meters, just a few centimeters off the mark of 57.64m set by Dana Newell in 2016. That mark not only broke a meet record but moved her up to third in NCAA DII in provisional qualifying throws.
Weldy led five Hillsdale placers in the hammer throw. Katie Sayles took second behind Weldy with a mark of 51.91 meters, Juliet Bernard placed fourth with a mark of 49.36 meters, Eden Little took seventh (45.63) and Mackenzie Morrison placed eighth (43.21).
The hammer was the best showing in a strong day for the Hillsdale throwers. Little won the javelin with a meet record throw of 40.69 meters, Sayles took second in the shot put with a mark of 12.52 meters and Amelia Lutz took third with a throw of 12.21 meters, and the Chargers went 1-2 in the discus, with Morrison winning the title with a mark of 38.82 meters, and Lutz taking second with a mark of 37.98 meters.
Also in the field, Hillsdale's Tara Townsend put down a strong early marker in the pole vault, winning with a clearance of 3.84 meters that represents her best performance outdoors at Hillsdale and is a provisional mark that ranks eighth in NCAA DII so far. Townsend was the best of several jumpers who performed well for Hillsdale, as senior Emily Gerdin won the triple jump (11.11 meters) and took runner-up in the long jump (5.25 meters) with teammate Grace Chen placing in both events as well (seventh in triple jump, 10.19 meters, and eighth in long jump, 4.81 meters). Junior Reagan Dahlquist also took second in the high jump with a clearance of 1.63 meters.
On the track, Reeese Dragovich won the 800m run title with a strong early race, finishing in 2:19.46, while teammate Nicole Marshall finished seventh in 2:22.57. Josee Behling took third in the 400m dash (59.03) and Lucy Minning finished fourth in the 100m dash (12.24) as well for the Chargers.
Hillsdale next competes officially at the MSU Spartan Invitational in East Lansing on April 5 and 6.