Final Results (PDF)
HILLSDALE, Mich. – Mirroring the men, a total of a dozen meet records were officially broken as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships concluded over the weekend at Hillsdale College.
It was another impressive showcase from the league’s student-athletes in their respective events as they look to qualify, either automatically or provisionally, for nationals that will be held in Kingsville, Texas.
And once again, it was head coach Jeremy Croy’s Tiffin Dragons rising to the top of the podium to secure the team title, a perfect match to TU’s indoor championship run.
In 2018-19, Croy’s programs secured both men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor championship trophies to store back on Tiffin’s campus.
The Dragons’ women racked up a total of 212.50 points, outdistancing runner-up Walsh as the Cavaliers accumulated 156 points. Both the Walsh men and women finished second in the outdoor meets, respectively.
Host Hillsdale placed third with 147 points, Malone was fourth with 64 points and Cedarville rounded out the top five in team scoring with 63 points. A total of 21 events were scored over the three-day outdoor meet.
Individual awards were also presented to standouts of the meet as voted upon by the coaches. Winning Great Midwest Track Athlete of the Meet was Hillsdale freshman speedster Kajsa Johansson, who broke two meet records.
Claiming honors as Great Midwest Freshman of the Meet was Tiffin thrower Nicole Berry, who has been consistently stellar in the throws cage going back to the indoor campaign.
The Great Midwest Field Athlete of the Meet was presented to Tiffin senior jumper Miaisha Blair, who excelled from the pits once again to win the triple jump.
Johansson, coming off a freshman indoor season that included track athlete of the year and freshman of the year honors, went out and blew away not only the meet records, but the overall records in the 100 and 200-meter dashes.
Johansson flew in the finals to a time of 11.67, effectively besting former Ursuline standout Nicole Yeargin’s 11.90 in the 2017 outdoor meet. She then passed teammate Zalonya Eby in the 200 for the all-time best with a time of 23.76 in the finals.
Johansson is pretty much a virtual lock for qualifying in both events at nationals as well.
The women, just like the men, set new meet records in the distance events courtesy of Hillsdale sophomore Maryssa Depies in the 5K and Cedarville freshman Alayna Ackley in the 10K. The 3K steeplechase was also broken as Hillsdale’s Allysen Eads clocked the second-fastest time in the event in the conference history.
Davis & Elkins’ sophomore Samantha Kirk has carefully carved out seven of the conference’s 10 best times in the 400-meter hurdles. She now holds the overall and meet record with a provision time of 1:01.13 for a conference title.
Both relay records went down in the 4x100 and 4x400 as Tiffin crossed the line in 47.33 and Hillsdale’s quartet had a 3:51.14.
Tiffin freshman Marisa Gwinner cleared 1.72m in the high jump for a new meet record and the impressive rookie holds both indoor and outdoor conference records in her first year on the scene.
Berry and Findlay’s Hannah Hahler also broke meet records in the shot put and discus while Tiffin’s Jazilee Williams scored 4,542 points to set the tone with a new heptathlon conference meet record.