The Hillsdale College women’s track and field team continued to make strides toward the championship form they will need to compete for a national team title at the NCAA D-II Championship in May. The Chargers competed at the Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta and Al Owens Invitational in Allendale, Michigan, this past weekend, and are now ranked fifth in the latest USTFCCCA National D-II Rankings.
A large portion of the women’s team traveled to Georgia on April 20 and returned on Sunday. Head distance coach Andrew Towne acknowledged that sort of time commitment can be difficult at this point in the semester.
“It can be hard at this time of the year to manage school and travel. I thought we did some good things and there were some things I wish were better,” Towne said.
Overall, Towne said the women’s performance at Georgia Tech was “OK,” but he also mentioned a number of athletes and relays that did particularly well at the meet.
In the 1500-meter run, senior captain Emily Oren ran an NCAA D-II lead-time of 4:21, while still running three seconds slower than her personal best. Senior Kristina Perkins (4:26), who is currently ranked fourth in Division II, and sophomore Hannah MacIntyre (4:34) ran personal best times in the 1500.
“I thought I competed well against the other people,” Oren said. “To get into races that are really competitive like that, I don’t necessarily have to go in with the mindset of trying to win. Knowing that there are other girls in the race who have just as good of a chance at winning it as I do helps push me a lot.”
Freshman Ally Eads broke 11 minutes in the steeplechase, running 10:53 and earning a provisional time in only her second steeplechase ever. Sophomore Amanda Reagle also ran a provisional time, running a personal best 11:03.
The 4×400 relay team — senior captain Corinne Zehner, freshman Tori Wichman, junior Allison Duber, and junior Sarah Benson — ran its race in 3:47.13, its fastest time of the season. The team has qualified for the national meet and is currently ranked 18th in Division II.
Towne was proud of the performances by junior Dana Newell and sophomore Rachael Tolsma in the hammer throw. Newell had three throws over 55 feet and Tolsma had a personal best throw in the event, going 54.76 meters.
“Last year I didn’t hit 55 meters until my third day, three days in a row, and this year I’m hitting very high numbers very consistency,” Newell said. “If I could I would love to hit 60 meters this season. It’s possible, I just have to have everything come together for one throw.”
Both Newell and Tolsma have hit national qualifying marks.
Towne also thought there were a number of solid performances at the Al Owens Invitational.
“We didn’t have a lot of people there, trying to keep those who didn’t make the Georgia trip moving along. I thought Emily Guy did a nice job for us and I thought Kat Torres did a solid job for us there as well,” Towne said.
After this past weekend’s meets, the women have qualified 15 individual athletes and relay teams for the national meet on May 26-28 in Bradenton, Florida.
But while 15 athletes have qualified for the meet, not all 15 athletes and relay teams are ranked high enough to make the cut to be included in their events. Athletes who haven’t hit an “auto” qualifying mark will have to wait until after the May 15 to know whether or not they have qualified for the national meet.
Towne says that his expectations for the final meets of “championship season” are no different than usual.
“I would expect that we have a very balanced team at NCAAs, just like we had indoors, maybe more so a little bit. We have a great senior class that helped put the program in a position that it is now,” Towne said. “The more we go there balanced, the tougher we’re going to be in terms of the team competition.”
Today through Saturday, the Chargers will host the 50th Annual Gina Relays meet at Hillsdale’s Ken Herrick track. Gina Relays is perennially one of the best meets in the midwest at this point in the outdoor track season, and because this year is also an olympic year, even more post-collegiate runners have signed up for the meet than in previous years.