“Anytime you compete against a Big 10 school, you’re going to find out where you are at really quickly,” Hillsdale track and field head coach Andrew Towne said. “We are able to go to those meets now on a regular basis with a good chunk of kids because of how much our program has improved.”
The Hillsdale indoor track and field team spent last weekend at Indiana University’s Gladstein Fieldhouse running with Big 10 teams at the 2015 Gladstein Invitational.
Junior Emily Oren placed fourth in the women’s mile at the meet with a time of 4:55.02, the fastest time among non-Division I competitors. She was named GLIAC women’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Week. Oren is now ranked 2nd for the mile in the GLIAC and 4th in NCAA Division II.
Freshman Lane White won the 400 meter dash with a time of 49.06. Colby Clark, also a freshman, finished 4th with a time of 49.86.
“The IU meet was a really good chance for us to compete with a lot of bigger schools that we don’t get to run into,” Clark said. “We also got to experience what it’s going to be like at a championship meet because they have a similar track. I think there’s a lot of people on the team who got provisional marks and qualified for nationals so that was a good day. And I personally had a pretty good race in the 400—didn’t PR but got to race with some good talent so that was a good time.”
Junior Corinne Zehner and the women’s 4×400 meter relay team won their heat with a time of 3:52.14, earning them 5th place.
“We didn’t run as fast as I think we wanted to or I think our coach would hope for, but we got bumped into the second heat and that was to our disadvantage because we were out in front — we should have had faster people to race with,” Zehner said. “Even without people to run with it was a really impressive time in my opinion.”
Senior Joshua Mirth ran the 3K in 8:30.1, finishing 4th in his heat and 16th overall. Freshman Jared Schipper reached a height of 4.8 meters in the pole vault, placing him 8th in the NCAA Division II.
As impressive as the IU meet sounds, Towne said it’s a fairly regular occurrence for Hillsdale’s runners, jumpers, and throwers, and is a testament to the growing strength of Hillsdale’s program and the particular nature of track and field as a collegiate sport.
“If you think about the men’s [basketball] team playing Michigan in the fall, that was a huge event, and it should be, but we joked as a staff that— and we realize that we are a non-revenue sport compared to something like football or basketball— we joked that if that many emails went out every time we did that you’d have twenty, twenty-five emails, because it happens all the time,” Towne said. “Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, they come here for our meets.”
It’s not only that Hillsdale has the opportunity to compete with these schools, but also that Hillsdale track and field is developing into a team that can and does compete with these schools.
“It’s just a different sport and mostly it’s limited by scholarship limitations,” Towne said.
Towne explained that while in collegiate football there’s a difference of 50 scholarships between Division I teams and Division II teams, both Division I and Division II track teams are limited to 12.6 scholarships.
“They’re not able to keep all the good players in Division I,” Towne said. “Most of our kids have been recruited by Big 10 schools, especially our scholarship kids. A lot of them have been offered money by Big 10 schools.”
Two weeks ago Charger indoor track and field was at Saginaw Valley University’s Classic, getting a feel for the facilities and track that will host the GLIAC Championships this year. The team is on rest this week and will return with a home meet, the Hillsdale Wide Track Classic, on Feb. 6 and 7 in the Margot V. Biermann Center.