Men's Entries by Event
Women's Entries by Event
Schedule of Events
INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Midwest Athletic Conference will be represented very well at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships down in Birmingham, Ala., that will be hosted by the University of Montevallo at the Crossplex.
Indoor nationals will be conducted on March 11-13 and the regular season within the conference recently concluded at the Great Midwest Championships at Cedarville’s Doden Field House.
While Findlay (men) and Hillsdale (women) claimed the top team honors, there are plenty of standout individuals from the league with either auto or provisional qualifying times/distances in their respective events.
The 2020 version of nationals was canceled due to COVID, leaving an incomplete finish to what could have been a remarkable ending for teams and individuals.
It was a huge success for programs in the league to complete as close to a full regular season considering the circumstances. Hillsdale, Cedarville, Findlay and Tiffin, were all able to host events as some conferences spread across Division II were unable to compete due to logistical challenges.
Half of the men’s 10 national qualifiers come from Tiffin, all in the field events. Collin Jasin is one of three pole vaulters from the Great Midwest to earn a trip along with Cedarville’s Tommy Ansiel and Hillsdale’s Ben Raffin. Ansiel is Division II’s No. 1 seed after shattering his own conference indoor record skying over 5.31m.
The Dragons will also possess two of the top seeds in the throws cage with Nikolas Curtiss and Ralph Casper in the shot put competition. Casper did his impressive damage at the conference indoor meet with an auto mark and is seeded third. Curtiss was an All-American in 2019 in the event and is aiming high as the No. 2 seed.
TU’s Lloyd McCurdy will be among the small list of favorites nationally in the triple jump as the No. 2 seed at 15.32m. He will be going up against others, including conference champion and Indoor Field Athlete of the Meet Martin Etsey of Findlay, who is seeded fifth and ranks as the conference’s all-time record holder.
Another Oiler waiting to make his mark is junior Sterling Mungro in weight throw. Mungro crushed the previous conference record late in the season and is the No. 2 seed only behind Northern State’s Tanner Berg. He will be joined by recent conference champion sprinters Josh Verhoff and Xavier Marable in the 200 and 400, respectively.
The women have 19 different individuals, including some entered in multiple events, ready to compete for the awards podium. Conference champion Hillsdale has six different individuals set to travel, including senior sprinter Kajsa Johansson, who qualified in the 60m, 200m and as a member of the 4x400 relay.
Other members of that relay group include Great Midwest Freshman of the Meet Shura Ermakov, Dakota Stamm and Alanna O’Leary. Together, they have broken the overall conference record, not once, but twice this season. Maryssa Depies also qualified in the mile and Nikita Maines gives the program an opportunity to score more points in shot put.
Tiffin’s Jazillee Williams is a repeat national qualifier in the multis and also is entered in the long jump. Conference Track Athlete of the Meet Rajiah Andrews is seeded seventh in the 60-meter hurdles after a dominant showing at Cedarville. Tiffin’s Marisa Gwinner is the defending national champion from 2019 in the high jump; she has quite a bit of conference company from teammate Mercedeez Francis, Cedarville’s Lyssi Snouffer (freshman also on the volleyball team) and Findlay’s Brooke Mangas. The Dragons, like Hillsdale, also have six different women’s national qualifiers and in that list is No. 4 seed in shot put Nicole Berry.
Pole vault depth is also notable between current conference record holder Morgan England (Findlay), Lindsey Kluesener (Findlay) and Madeline Hayes (Tiffin). All three of those names broke the previous conference meet record at Cedarville.
Walsh will be taking two qualifiers with Alexa Leppelemeier in the 3K and No. 5 seed Ndidiamaka Anaraodo in shot put, seeded just behind Berry. Malone's 2x cross country runner of the year Mackenna Curtis-Collins is another repeat qualifier in the 3K as well.