Charger women take 3rd at GLIAC Championships

[caption id="attachment_479" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hillsdale College freshman and Hillsdale Academy grad Clara Leutheuser took third in the high jump at the GLIAC Track and Field Championships Friday. Photo courtesy of Hillsdale College, Pete Mowry."][/caption]

With junior Jazmin Williams and sophomore Marta Scheiwe leading the way, the Hillsdale College women's track and field team proved it's not always size and money that matters, even at the GLIAC level.

After finishing sixth at the GLIAC Track and Field Championships in 2008, Friday was sort of a coming-out party for the Charger women as they had numerous Top 5 finishes and a pair of GLIAC titles to catapult them to third overall, comfortably ahead of Northern Michigan and in the rear-view mirror of Ashland and league champion Grand Valley.

The Charger women finished the meet with 102 points, 76 more than they came into Friday with, and the Eagles took runner-up honors with 133, only half of the Lakers 267.

Considering the youth of his squad and the fact Hillsdale College has only 7.5 scholarships available for indoor and outdoor track and field, as well as cross country for both the men's and women's programs, far less than many of its GLIAC counterparts, head coach Bill Lundberg was beaming with appreciation for his athletes.

"We're about half-funded compared to a lot of NCAA teams in our spot, but I would have it no other way because of the type of athletes we bring in, and how hard our coaches and everyone works to put us in this position," Lundberg said. "I'm not making excuses or anything, because although teams like Ashland and Grand Valley do have more aid coming in, it comes down to having the athletes and coaches. And our women really impressed me and we've got some stars doing some big things here."

Speaking of stars, it was a redshirt junior who stole much of the spotlight for Hillsdale on the women's side.

Williams was red-shirted for the 2008 outdoor track season and the 2009 indoor campaign to fight off fatigue, but also because her academic plan is set over the course of five years and Lundberg and his staff thought they could best utilize her talent if they gave her some time to train and rest.

Friday, at one of the biggest meets of her career, Williams shined and she has another season to prove it was no fluke and make waves on the national scene.
Williams led nearly start to finish in the 400 meter hurdles, posting a 1:01 flat to bring home the crown and she was also the anchor of the winning 4x100 relay team that came from behind on the final leg to defeat Grand Valley with a time of 47.49 seconds. Williams was also fourth in the 100, less than .3 seconds out of first with a
12.22.

"It was a strategic move on our part to keep her out of action and also kind of an academic thing, and it seems to have worked I'd say," Lundberg said. "She has just worked so hard and put in so many hours, like all of our athletes, to get where she is."

On the men's side it was the highly-decorated Jared Krout adding to his impressive resumé, with a GLIAC record time of 46.69 in the 400 to bring home the gold.
"We thought it was great when he ran a 46.88, but he came out and lowered his own school record and to be able to coach an athlete and person like Jared is just so special," Lundberg said.

Krout was also fourth in the 200 and part of the 4x100 relay team that placed third, after earning runner-up honors in the long jump on Thursday.
For the men's team as a whole it was what Lundberg called a "solid effort" as they placed seventh, after taking fifth at last season's championship meet.

"We still need to find some depth in our distance events, and are counting on some young prospects we have coming in, but I'd say it was solid, and we weren't far off from fifth, which is what we were kind of shooting for."

Ashland used its dominance in the field events Friday to overcome second place Grand Valley and bring home the GLIAC men's team title for the second straight year.

While first place is always the one who receives the most attention, there were plenty of other fine performances, including several surprising ones for Hillsdale.

On the women's side Scheiwe took second in the 400 with a time of 56.6 and third in the 200 (25.11), while also taking part in the 4x100 relay where the Chargers took first.

Scheiwe and Williams also were integral pieces of the 4x400 relay team that placed second.

"(Marta) is really something and she is already ranked (highly) on the national level and she had a very strong meet for us," Lundberg said.

The strength of the competition on hand was something to take notice of as well, with close to 50 athletes ranked in the Top 20 nationally in their respective events, according to the Charger head coach.

Katie Hunt also had a memorable close out to the conference season with several top finishes.

She was fourth in the long jump (5.4 meters) and sixth in the 100 hurdles (15.26), and was also part of the winning 4x100 team.

While her achievements may have been somewhat expected, those of a freshman from Camden-Frontier were certainly not.

Jennifer Shaffer, the daughter of a former Hillsdale College star, dropped her time in the 800 from around 2:16 a few weeks ago to a 2:11.79, good enough for third in the conference.

"Could you believe that? That is just tremendous, especially for a freshman coming in from a school that size and I think with that time she's ranked somewhere in the Top 10 nationally," Lundberg said. "Let me tell you, that's all hard work for you."

Another local garnering a podium finish was Clara Leutheuser, the Hillsdale Academy grad, who took third in the high jump, topping 1.66 meters in her first conference championship meet.

On the men's side it was freshman and Waldron graduate Tim Jagielski proving he will be a force to watch out for in years to come.

He placed fourth in the 5,000 with a 15:04.29 and took ninth in the 1500 with a 4:00.4.

Lundberg said he feels his coaches and his team's training regiments are "cutting edge" and he'd like to continue to ascend up the conference, ranks, but overall it was a phenomenal week.

"What I really liked was the competitiveness, but also the camaraderie these kids within the conference show. They go at it and battle hard, but respect each other and really build some relationships," he said. "It's just a very competitive conference and I think we saw that. There are a lot of kid who could probably be D-I and even some times being put up that are close to that of U.S. Olympic qualifiers."

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Charger track and field squads aim high at GLIACs

[caption id="attachment_210" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hillsdale junior Aaron Falk has already qualified for nationals in the 35-pound weight throw in two weeks. Photo courtesy of Hillsdale College."][/caption]

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on Feb. 27, 2009

The slogan for Hillsdale Chargers track and field in 2009 is "Return to Dominance" and there is no time quite like the present to try and make that company line a reality.

Starting today the Chargers are competing at the GLIAC Indoor Track and Field Championships at Saginaw Valley State, trying to improve on last season's third and fourth place team finishes for the men and women.

Despite being ranked considerably higher in the national rankings on both sides at this point compared to last year, a new wave of incredibly talented athletes have joined the conference the past 24 months, making it increasingly tough to accomplish a podium finish in a meet like this.

The men's team is ranked 21st in the USTFCCCA  dual meet rankings, nine spots better than a year ago and the women are up to 11th, after being ranked 21st at the end of February, 2008.

The competition has matched them blow-for-blow though.

The men's team from Ashland, Grand Valley, and Tiffin are all ranked in the top 10 and Ashland is only mere points from being the top ranked team in the country."

The Charger women have second and third ranked Grand Valley and Ashland to contend with on their side.

Nonetheless, Chargers head coach Bill Lundberg is setting his sights at the top of the horizon this weekend.

"I would say we have some of the finest coaches in the nation here and they really do all they can to make sure the athletes have everything they need to become phenomenal scholar-athletes," he said. "Getting back to where our program has been at points, including the late 80s, doesn't just happen in a year. It takes a little bit of going up against the Grand Valley's and Ashland's to achieve that, but we're getting there. Sometimes we just like to say we're a David within the group of Goliaths.

The Chargers currently have one automatic qualifier to the D-II NCAA national championships in two weeks, 35-pound weight thrower Aaron Falk, and there are nine other events that Hillsdale College athletes have met provisional qualifying marks to this point.

Here is a brief look at some of the biggest stars who will play huge rule in guiding their squads toward the top at SVSU this weekend:

Men's team

The Charger men are highlighted by a trio of upperclassmen who seem to have no ceiling when it comes to setting new personal bests, including a pair of 2008 All-Americans.

Junior Jared Krout was fourth in the nation in the 200m dash and fifth nationally in the 400m dash in 2008 and the team will count on big things from him in those events as well as the long jump.

His success speaks for itself but he will be the first to admit the competition continues to make staying on top harder and harder.

Heading into the conference meet he has just the fifth fastest 400m time (49.47) in the GLIAC and sixth best 200m mark at 22.34. Last season he won the 400m with a 49.25 and the 200m in a school-record 21.88 seconds. He also won the long jump at GLIACs with a jump of 23' 1 3/4 ".

He said his peers are better than ever, but he's up to the challenge.

"Some of the young guys in this conference, especially some freshmen sprinters have really made us all work a little harder and push ourselves a little more," he said. "But I've learned that you just have to trust what you've been doing all year and know it's going to happen for you. Even last year I didn't run as fast as I wanted all year long and then the conference meet rolled around and things worked out."

He will be the most watched Charger male in track events, but senior Andrew Dodson and junior Aaron Falk will hope to more than carry their weight in some of the field events.

Dodson was sixth in the nation in the high jump in 2008, good for All-American status and this year he has the third highest jump in the GLIAC at 2.08m, just .03m from the top.

"It's probably one of the best fields ever this year for the high jump. The top three guys in the conference will all be competitive at nationals." he said. "We've all won at one time or another going head-to-head this season and the measure of separation is very little."

He said he always tries to focus on what he's doing, not his opponents, because if you're not peaking right now then it's not going to matter what the competition is doing anyway.

He said he's striving to finish his career with another All-American performance, noting he's "closer to a national championship than even he thinks sometimes".

Another Charger who is ready to claim All-American status of his own is Falk, who has already qualified for nationals in the 35-pound weight.

His road to success has been an unlikely one, a road that didn't even include competing in track and field as a high schooler.

He came to college with hopes of walking on to the football team, but the Charger track and field coaches showed immediate interest and now he heads to GLIACs as the fourth ranked thrower in the conference.

He said he didn't have any bad habits to break like some freshman do, because he was "an empty slate" and he gives all of the credit for his success to coach Jeff Forino.

"Coach Forino just took me as I was and molded me. He has had a huge influence on everything I've done since the day I joined the team," he said. "Coach Forino has been focusing on the technical and physical aspects for months and he has really trained us how to be right on mentally later in the year."

Falk said being a member of the Charger team has "been a huge blessing in his life" and and the opportunity has opened up so many new avenues for him.

"All I know is they threw away the mold when they made Aaron Falk," coach Lundberg said.

Aside from the impressive trio of prospective national qualifiers, a pair of freshmen could make a splash this weekend.

Waldron graduate Tim Jagielski is ranked seventh in the GLIAC in the mile (4:16.68) and 12th in the two-mile (8:46.99) going in and first-year triple jumper Derek Top is third in his event with a mark of 13.58m.

Women's team

The Charger women are in the midst of a youth movement of sorts, with two freshmen and two sophomores already having met provisional qualifying marks for nationals.

Maybe the most promising of those, based on numbers alone, is sophomore Marta Scheiwe. In 2008 she finished second in the conference meet in the 200m (25.11) and the 400m (57.37) and is ranked in the top 20 nationally in both events this year.

She is second in the 200m (25.29) and tops in the 400m (57.16) and she said consistency is one of the biggest keys in being a top track and field athlete.

"I think one of the biggest things for us is just being consistent and working hard all the time. Because our season is so long — we're training all fall even though the season doesn't start — and then you have indoor season and outdoor season, you have to be dedicated the whole time."

She said she also constantly reminds herself that the main reason she competes is because she truly enjoys it and the final results are only part of the equation.

Scheiwe has also provisionally qualified for nationals in the 60m dash with a time of 7.77 seconds.

Freshman Amanda Putt is third in the mile (5:01.19) heading in to this weekend's meet and fellow first-year athlete Kathy Dirksen is ninth in the shot put (12.75m).

Sophomores Kelsey Schuler and Erin Brunko also have hopes of podium finishes and all-conference status.

Schuler has the top triple jump mark in the conference at 10.74m and Brunko is fifth best in the 3000m (10:27.91).

Junior Kathryn Hunt will try and add onto an already stellar career in the women's long jump, where she is currently ranked third in the GLIAC, with a jump of 5.49m.

Senior Sarah Kauk is the fourth best in women's pole vault to date and is just .07 behind the third best mark in the conference.

Scheiwe said the team has goals they expect to meet over the next two days.

"One of them is to win the indoor conference championships," she said. "We also make sure we support each other on and off the track and no matter what happens we always want give 100 percent 24/7.

Lundberg said he is constantly amazed at the dedication and drive of his athletes and he thinks it is going to pay off in a tangible way, especially if everyone can help pile up some points.

"To compete and become a champion in this conference...it's hard. You need depth and you need talent within that depth to compete."

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