The Hillsdale College women's track and field team got off to just about the best start possible at the first day of the G-MAC Outdoor Championships on Wednesday at Ashland.

With 30 points from the first three events, Hillsdale ended the day in the lead in the team race, thanks to several impressive finishes.

The Chargers got a G-MAC Championship in the 10,000m run, as freshman Allison Kuzma added the crown to her 5,000m G-MAC title indoors with a dominant race in her first time contesting the distance in a collegiate event. Her winning time of 34:39.69 was nearly a full minute and a half ahead of second place, and was not only a provisional qualifying time for the NCAA DII National Championships at the end of May, it also moved her into 14th place nationally in the event, giving her a real shot of making the trip to Pueblo, Colorado to compete for All-American honors.

While Kuzma's title was thrilling, it wasn't the only excellent performance for the Chargers on Wednesday, as Hillsdale also had a strong outing in the throws. In the hammer throw, Averi Parker took runner-up honors with a new personal best throw of 57.17 meters, moving her up to 13th in the nation and giving her a strong chance to return to the outdoor national meet for the third time in her career. Teammate Katie Sayles took fifth with a throw of 55.92 meters, also improving her provisional qualifying mark up to 19th in the nation and giving her a shot at potential qualifying for the national meet as well.

Meanwhile, in the javelin, Marilyn Popplewell made a storybook runner-up finish for the Chargers with a throw of 36.76 meters. Popplewell, a former volleyball and basketball star for Hillsdale who had never picked up a javelin in her life six weeks ago, scored eight valuable points for the Chargers to help them end Day 1 in first place. 

Hillsdale is well-positioned to add to its total thanks to a strong showing on the first day of the heptathlon as well. Freshman Baelyn Zitzmann sits in third with 2,784 points thanks to a first-place finish in the high jump, with teammate Neva Polo in fifth with 2,625 points and freshman Aubrie Wilson also in eighth and in position to potentially place for the Chargers with 2,249 points. Zitzmann could still potentially climb in the standings with three events remaining, as she's strong in both the long jump and 800m run which have yet to be added to the total.

Hillsdale will look to defend its spot in the standings on a much busier second day of the G-MAC Outdoor Championships tomorrow. Along with the finish in the heptathlon, finals also will be contested in the women's shot put, long jump, pole vault and 3,000m steeplechase. In addition, there will be critical preliminary races in most of the running events, as Hillsdale will look to get as many athletes through to the finals on Friday. The action kicks off with the heptathlon beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the morning.

Photo Courtesy of Ashland Athletics