The Hillsdale College women's track and field team kicked off outdoor season this weekend with the same record-setting performances the squad finished the recently concluded indoor season with just a couple of weeks ago.

Competing all across the country, in Colorado, Texas and Ohio, the Chargers brought home great finishes in all three locations to begin outdoor season with a bang, posting five provisional marks and setting a new school record.

The biggest performances came out in Colorado at the Chuck Haering Classic hosted by CSU-Pueblo. The site of last year's NCAA DII Outdoor Championships, the ThunderBowl proved to be a fitting site for a breakout performance by Hillsdale's women's sprints crew.

The Chargers shattered the old Hillsdale school record in the 4x100m relay of 46.61 set last season, as the Chargers' team of seniors Francesca Federici, Lucy Minning and Anna Lamoreaux and freshman Anna Roessner won the meet in 46.01, a NCAA DII provisional qualifying mark that currently ranks third in NCAA DII at this early juncture of the season. If the 2025 qualifying marks are any indication, the Chargers will need to go faster for the relay to make the national meet in 2026, but the result is a strong early marker that puts Hillsdale in position to chase qualification for the remainder of the season.

The relay was one of several impressive performances by Roessner, the 2026 G-MAC Indoor Freshman of the Year. Roessner also won the 100m dash in 11.60, posting the second fastest time in the race in Hillsdale College history in her first outdoor event along with a time that currently ranks fifth in NCAA DII, and she also won the 200m dash in 23.83, also the second-fastest outdoor 200m time in program history and tied for second in the nation currently.

Minning also put up impressive finishes, taking second behind Roessner in the 200m dash in 24.18 and third in the 100m dash in 11.79, just missing provisional marks in both events. Lamoreaux also posted a new personal best in the 100m dash of 12.35 to place 16th, and Federici took third in the 400m dash with a time of 57.83 as well.

 Hillsdale's throws also got off to a strong start out in Colorado. Fresh off an All-American performance in the shot put indoors, sophomore Amelia Lutz placed second in the shot put with a throw of 14.50 meters, setting a provisional mark in the event and moving up to fifth all-time in Hillsdale College history in the outdoor shot put. Lutz also took second in the discus with a new personal best throw of 45.45 meters, now ranking fifth all-time among Chargers women outdoors in the event, and also placed runner-up in the hammer throw with a mark of 51.01 meters, a new personal best.

Freshman Devan Foster had an impressive debut in the javelin for the Chargers, throwing 40.48 meters in her first meet and starting with the sixth-best mark in the event in Hillsdale College history, while Regan Wight placed fourth in the hammer throw for Hillsdale with a mark of 48.33 meters and Olivia Newsome took fifth with a throw of 48.20 meters.

Along with the action in Colorado, Hillsdale also sent its jumpers and multis to Texas State University on Friday and Saturday to compete in the Charles Austin Classic. The top result from the meet came from senior Tara Townsend, who was runner-up in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.00 meters just two weeks after earning All-American honors in the event. That clearance is a provisional mark that has Townsend tied for second in NCAA DII outdoors in the early going of the season, and Townsend also ran a personal best in the 100m dash in 12.55 to place ninth as well. 

Hillsdale also had two athletes competing the high jump, with sophomore Baelyn Zitzmann clearing 1.65 meters to finish third and freshman Bristol Whitley placing fifth with a clearance of 1.60 meters in her first collegiate outdoor meet.

The Chargers third and final crew of distance athletes competed at the Cedarville Yellow Jacket Collegiate Invitational on Saturday. Freshman Taylor Brodeur was third for the Chargers in her first collegiate 3,000m steeplechase, finishing in 11:34.10, just ahead of senior Anna Roberts who placed fourth in 11:34.16. Freshman Grace Tykocki was the top finisher for Hillsdale of three runners in the 10,000m run as well, placing 10th in 40:12.35.

After a strong start this weekend, Hillsdale looks ahead to another busy weekend up ahead. The Chargers will send small crews to the Stanford Invitational, out in Stanford, California, and the Oliver Nikoloff Invite in Cincinnati, Ohio, while the bulk of the team heads north to East Lansing, Michigan to compete in the Spartan Invitational hosted by Michigan State University on Friday.