Final Results (PDF)
Official Great Midwest Indoor T&F Championships Page
HILLSDALE, Mich. – A dominant two-day stretch from Hillsdale resulted in Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Indoor Track & Field Championship title merit as the event came to a close on Saturday.
The host Chargers defended their home venue at the Biermann Athletic Center with a final count of 199 points, more than 100 points of separation from second place in the team scoring.
Mirroring the men’s superlatives in the fifth annual conference championship meet, the women did their part by bringing down a total of 14 meet records (of 17 events scored). Ten different conference meet records were reset on Saturday alone while three standards represented all-time Great Midwest bests.
Ursuline’s junior Janelle Perry put on a jaw-dropping exhibition in the 60-meter hurdles with a scintillating 8.23 in the finals, officially the top time in NCAA Division II this season to make her an instant national champ favorite.
As a result, Perry was deservedly billed as the unanimous Great Midwest Female Track Athlete of the Meet, turning heads everywhere with additional titles in the 60-meter dash and long jump. She also was fourth in high jump and anchored a third-place finishing 4x4 relay team.
Perry is also a national auto qualifier in the pentathlon.
The Chargers of Hillsdale displayed the prowess that made them cross country team champions in the fall, securing precious points in distance and relay events on the final day of competition.
Four of 10 meet records Saturday were courtesy of Hillsdale in the 200-meter dash, 3K race, triple jump and 4x4 relay. NCAA auto qualifier Hannah McIntyre won her second event with a blistering time in the 3K for top honors.
Chloe Ohlgren had one of the meet’s upsets in the triple jump, beating top seed Sugar Henry, who broke the conference record in the event that had been held since 2014.
The 4x4 quartet of Zalonya Eby, Victoria Wichmann, Ashlee Moran and Abbie Porter, set another conference meet record. Also notable is that Porter was less than one second away from tying two-time national indoor 800 champion Carsyn Koch (Cedarville) and her conference meet record.
Running in the 800 and cracking any top-10 time in the event is a difficult task given Koch’s dominant history. She has been sidelined for the current indoor season recovering from injury.
Eby was voted by the coaches as the Great Midwest Female Freshman Athlete of the Meet. She also clocked the best time in the 200-meter dash and was second in the 60-meter dash. Her proficiency in the short sprints helped the Chargers balance out their distance excellence.
Great Midwest Field Athlete of the Meet honors was presented to Findlay’s senior thrower Alex DeVincentis, a three-time conference athlete of the week and the league’s shot put champ. She also placed third in weight throw and has been towards the top of the NCAA DII leaderboard all season.
DeVincentis set a conference meet record in shot put while Malone’s sophomore jumper Olga Branney successfully defended her conference title in the high jump. Walsh’s senior auto qualifier Kaitlyn Barber cleared 3.77m for another championship meet top mark. Her teammate Sarah Berger also finished under five minutes in the mile, good for another meet record for the Cavaliers.
The official performance-based all-conference team will be released early next week. Coach of the year balloting will not be conducted until the conclusion of the NCAA DII Championships.