Less than a week after the 2025 NCAA DII Indoor National Meet, the Hillsdale College men's track and field team got the outdoor season off to a hot start with two provisional marks at the Blizzard Buster Invite hosted by Miami University of Ohio on Friday.

Taking a small contingent of throwers to the meet and competing in just three events, the Chargers put down several notable markers for the season to come.

The most exciting performance was by sophomore Jackson Childress, who kicked off the 2025 outdoor season with a huge personal best in the discus of 51.57 meters to take second in the event and set his first ever NCAA DII Provisional Qualifying mark. The mark currently ranks fifth in the nation at the NCAA DII level and means Childress will be part of the group under consideration to make the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships in May. While Childress will likely need to throw farther over the next two months to make his first national meet, the early provo mark is an encouraging sign he'll be able to do just that in April and May.

While Childress had a breakthrough meet, junior Ben Haas continues to do what he does best. Fresh off winning the NCAA DII Indoor national title in the weight throw last weekend in Indianapolis, Haas took first at the Blizzard Buster in the hammer throw with a provisional qualifying mark of 62.40 meters, currently the top mark in NCAA DII by almost three meters and a performance that would have made the field in the 2024 NCAA DII Outdoor Championships in his first attempt of the season. Haas, who was an All-American in the hammer throw in 2024, will look to continue to show he's a potential national title contender in the event throughout the rest of the season, and chase the Hillsdale record of 66.39 meters in the event set by Jason Stomps in 2010.

Haas also took a runner-up finish on Friday in the shot put with a throw of 15.76 meters, while Childress placed 11th in the hammer throw with a mark of 44.32 meters. Two other Hillsdale athletes set new personal bests in the weight throw, as Dmitry Ermakov took 12th with a throw of 43.99 meters, and Isaac Doughty placed 13th with a throw of 43.55 meters.

The outdoor season kicks into gear next week for the Charger men, as Hillsdale sends some of its top athletes down to Austin to compete against an elite national field in the Texas Relays, while the team sends the bulk of its athletes to Tiffin, Ohio on Saturday at the Tiffelberg Invite.