Photo Galleries ( Day 1 | Day 2 | Awards Podium)
Full Results
CEDARVILLE, Ohio – A second-day surge by Hillsdale led to the program’s third league title in four years when the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Indoor Track & Field Championships wrapped up over the weekend.
The Chargers recorded a total of 188 points and it was a balanced effort to hold off Findlay, the day one team leader and eventual conference runner-up with 148 points.
Tiffin dominated the short sprints and multis to finish third (130), Cedarville was fourth (59) boosted by a 1 mile run win from Rachel Sweeney and Walsh (52) rounded out the top-five scoring teams, respectively. The top three individuals in each event continued to officially be recognized as all-conference performers for the meet.
Day two in the Doden Field House featured plenty of running events and talents on display in the pole vault, various jumps and the shot put.
After the 2020 meet came down to the wire in a 4x400-meter relay showdown against Tiffin, this year was a little bit different as the Chargers scored in every event except the high jump. Middle distance belonged to the Chargers, including a 1-2-3 effort in the 200-meter dash led by a new meet record from Kajsa Johansson.
The Chargers also established a not-so-surprising new meet record in the 4x400-meter relay after the program has already broken the overall conference record twice this season. Sophomore Dakota Stamm won the 400 and Calli Townsend was runner-up in a photo finish in the 800 to deliver eight team points. Johansson was runner-up in the 60-meter dash.
Hillsdale also won the triple jump courtesy of Emily Gerdin and finished second through fifth in the 5K race. Maryssa Depies was runner-up only to Walsh’s Alexa Leppelmeier in the 3K with a host of cross country stars.
Cedarville’s Sweeney had a memorable finish in the mile run, edging out two-time cross country runner of the year Mackenna Curtis-Collins for first. Sweeney ran a 5:03.03 and was one-hundredth of a second quicker to the line than Curtis-Collins.
The Oilers were runner-up and day two was highlighted by an 800m win by Hayley Robinett and 5K champ Gabrielle Lawrence ran a great race to finish third in the 3K.
The Great Midwest individual award winners were recognized following the event in a private ceremony with no fans or outside spectators permitted. This year’s Track, Field and Freshman Athletes of the Meet, were determined by the most points accounted for their team.
The Great Midwest Track Athlete of the Meet was Tiffin senior Rajiah Andrews, who is a bolt of lightning while dashing to titles in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles. Andrews was a split second ahead of Johansson in a finish of 7.61 seconds. She had to edge out her own teammate in the hurdles in another very close finish with a winning time of 8.70 seconds. She was responsible for 20 of Tiffin’s team points and clocked provisional times in both runs.
The Great Midwest Field Athlete of the Meet was Tiffin’s senior Jazilee Williams, who seemingly is out on the track for almost every event possible. Williams won multis on Friday with 3,534 points, was champion in the long jump (5.68m) and placed fifth in the high jump. She was responsible for 23 of Tiffin’s team points, the most out of any competitor at this year’s championship event.
The Great Midwest Freshman of the Meet was Hillsdale middle distance standout Shura Ermakov. Ermakov made the finals in both the 60-meter hurdles and 400-meter dash. She was runner-up in the 400 and was sixth in the hurdles. Similar to men’s freshman of the meet Jamahl Burke, also of Hillsdale, Ermakov scored 11 points for her team.
The final award presented was the Great Midwest Elite 23 award, presented to the participating student-athlete with the highest GPA. The inaugural offering went to Cedarville junior Lindsey Bishop, who is majoring in Linguistics. She was one of a handful of nominees with a perfect 4.0 GPA and competed in the shot put finals this year.