Hillsdale College men's track and field senior Ben Haas cemented his dominance of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in record-setting fashion on Friday's first day of the G-MAC Indoor Championships at the Niss Athletic Center in Ashland, Ohio.

Haas, the defending NCAA DII National Champion in the event, captured his fourth straight conference title in the weight throw with a new personal best mark of 22.91 meters, breaking his old school and G-MAC record of 22.88 meters thrown at the 2025 NCAA DII Indoor Championships in Indianapolis. The mark means Haas continues to rank as the top weight thrower at the NCAA DII level, and is the 11th furthest throw in NCAA DII history in the event.

In claiming the title, Haas' toughest challenge came from his own teammate, as freshman phenom Dominic Scharer briefly overtook Haas on the leaderboard before the senior champion uncorked his record-setting throw that sealed the competition. Scharer tied his own personal best of 21.09 meters in the event to place second and give Hillsdale a 1-2 finish and 18 valuable points in the event. The Chargers almost had another placer from the weight throw, as senior Matthew Belanich's strong personal best of 17.92 meters finished just outside the points in ninth place, and Dimitry Ermakov took 12th with a throw of 17.46 meters as well.

The Charger men had a solid first day all around. Senior Connor McCormick cleared a season-best height of 4.88 meters to tie for fifth in the pole vault and improve his provisional qualifying mark to a tie for 45th place nationally in NCAA DII, while senior Gabriel Phillips led a strong showing in the 5,000m run with a fourth-place finish in 14:31.93 as well for the Chargers.

Senior Nathaniel Osborne finished 10th in a personal best time of 14:54.70 for the Chargers as well, and Emil Schlueter took 15th in 15:11.69.

Hillsdale also brought home valuable points in the distance medley relay, placing sixth in 10:01.24, and tying for the fifth fastest time in Hillsdale College men's indoor track history in the event, while just missing a provisional qualifying mark in the event as well.

The Chargers' sprint crew also put forth a solid performance. Freshman Wyatt Widolff ran a personal best by over a second in the 400m dash, finishing in 48.88, the ninth-fastest indoor time in the event in program history, to place seventh in the prelims and advance to the finals on Saturday. Zealand Tarrant finished 13th behind Widolff with a personal best time of 49.41, and freshman Jack Polizzi ran a personal best time of 49.45 as well.

Three other Hillsdale College athletes ran times that placed them on the Chargers' all-time top 10 list on Friday. Freshman Watson Magwenzi took 11th in the 60m dash in 6.93, tied for the fourth-fastest 60m time in program history, while sophomore Sam Jones also took 11th in the 200m dash in 22.11, a personal best and 10th all-time in the event indoors at Hillsdale.

Senior Colsen Conway placed 13th in the 60m hurdles as well, finishing in a personal best time of 8.34 that's sixth-fastest all-time in the event at Hillsdale.

With six of 17 events completed after the first day, the Chargers rank fourth as a team with 30.5 total points. If Hillsdale can hold on to fourth place through the remainder of the events on Saturday, it would be the Charger men's best finish at an indoor conference meet since 2022. Hillsdale will get a stiff challenge for the spot from Cedarville, Walsh and Northwood, but the Chargers have several athletes in a position to score points as well in what is shaping up as a fierce battle tomorrow in Ashland.