Final Results
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FINDLAY, Ohio – First-year league member Tiffin pulled away from the women’s field with almost half of the total event victories to finish the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday.
The Dragons held on to their first-day lead and added to it with a total of 188.5 points in 17 team events scored. Walsh was the runner-up with 103 points while Hillsdale, last year’s team champ, placed third with 99.5 points.
Tiffin’s depth was on full display with a talented roster from head coach Jeremy Croy and his staff to win its first Great Midwest meet in the program’s first attempt. The feeling of victory was doubled as the TU men’s program also finished on top of the scoring.
Chants of TU!…TF!... resonated throughout the Malcolm Athletic Center as the Dragons’ flag wove proudly during the team’s victory lap after receiving the trophy and celebrating at the awards podium.
Tiffin’s women won the pentathlon, high jump, pole vault, 200m, long jump, shot put, triple jump and 60-meter hurdles. Kirsten Camp, Marisa Gwinner, Miaisha Blair and Nicole Berry all set conference meet records in their respective events.
To be fair, hurdler Emma Gielink and jumping specialist Shalbe Evans were up against some of NCAA DII’s best with Ursuline national champion and All-American Janelle Perry’s distances standing the test of time.
Other conference meet records shattered included Semoy Hemmings (Findlay) in the 400-meter dash and Andra Lehotay (Walsh) in the mile.
The coaches voted upon several individual award winners for their exploits during the meet. Additional honors are being voted upon for athletes of the year as well.
The Great Midwest Track Athlete of the Meet was Lehotay, a cross country standout with a similar resume to that of the men’s winner, Joseph Humes from Hillsdale.
Lehotay ran the anchor leg of the Cavaliers’ runner-up DMR group while stepping up to the podium with winning times in the 800m and mile run.
Findlay junior Hannah Hahler was the lone thrower to place top three in both the shot put and weight throw. She was named Great Midwest Field Athlete of the Meet with a runner-up showing in shot and third-place effort in weight throw.
Speedy Hillsdale freshman gave the Chargers their second consecutive Freshman of the Meet (Zalonya Eby in 2018) as Kajsa Johansson zipped her way to an impressive 60-meter dash win, just 0.01 second away from the meet record.
Johansson was also runner-up in the 200-meter dash behind Tiffin’s two-time athlete of the week Brittany Holbrook.
Great Midwest student-athletes have hit plenty of auto and provisional marks throughout the year. The next step will be waiting for the championship qualifying field announced by the NCAA Committee for the DII Championships in Pittsburg, Kan..