The Hillsdale College men's track and field team showed out with a strong performance at one of the program's biggest home meets on the calendar this weekend.

Hillsdale hosted the 56th edition of the GINA Relays, named in honor of Chargers legend Gina (Van Laar) Lanser, Hillsdale's only cross country national champion in program history and a track and field national champion as well. 

The Chargers captured six event titles, set four new NCAA DII provisional qualifying marks, saw eight athletes earn new spots on the Chargers' top 10 all-time list, and saw a school record broken in three days of impressive performances from April 16-18.

As has been the case for the past few seasons, senior and three-time national champion Ben Haas led the way for the Chargers. Haas captured the hammer throw title, shattering his own school record in the event with a mark of 69.28 meters. That mark is the fifth-best throw in the history of the G-MAC, and ranks Haas second nationally in NCAA DII at this time. Haas also won the shot put with a season-best throw of 17.91 meters, good for 11th best in NCAA DII in that event as well.

Haas led an epic showing in the hammer throw for the Charger men, who saw three athletes set provisional qualifying marks and four record new marks on Hillsdale's top 10 all-time list in one day of action.

Freshman Dominic Scharer took second to Haas with a throw of 62.90 meters, good for fourth all-time at Hillsdale and 12th in NCAA DII this season, while senior Matthew Belanich placed fourth with a throw of 58.01 meters, sixth best all-time at Hillsdale and 34th in NCAA DII this season.

Junior Dimitry Ermakov also made it into the top 10 in Hillsdale's all-time list with a personal best throw of 56.57 meters to finish fifth, the ninth-best mark in Hillsdale history.

While Hillsdale's throwers set the tone, they were just one part of a strong all-around showing for the Chargers. 

Hillsdale got the weekend off to a great start in the Thursday night distance carnival, placing four in the top nine in both the 3,000m steeplechase and the 5,000m run.

Freshman Jefferson Regitz led Hillsdale's steeple crew with a runner-up finish and a personal best time of 9:18.84, Zach Self took fourth with a personal-best time of 9:30.06, John Ahrabi placed sixth in 9:46.00, and Noah Gazmin took seventh in 9:47.90.

In the 5K, all four of Hillsdale's top nine finishers ran personal bests and broke 15 minutes. Senior Emil Schlueter led the way and took third in a time of 14:51.30 for the Chargers, while senior Nathaniel Osborne finished fourth in 14:51.40 and freshman John Richardson took fifth in 14:53.10. Caleb Youngstedt placed ninth in 14:57.00 as well for the Chargers.

Hillsdale charged into Friday with more strong performances on the track. Freshman Watson Magwenzi crossed the finish line in the 100m dash in 10.63, the third fastest 100m dash PR in Hillsdale College history, to place sixth, while fellow freshman Wyatt Widolff took eighth in the 400m dash in 48.52, 10th-best in that event in Hillsdale history as well. 

Ross Kuhn won the 1,500m run for the Chargers, just missing breaking his own school record in the event with a time of 3:46.63, with Richardson finishing fourth behind him 3:58.53. Colsen Conway took sixth in the 110 hurdles as well in 14.92.

In the field, Yahli Salzman won the open division of the shot put as well for Hillsdale with a mark of 14.88 meters, eighth best on the day overall, while Jackson Childress took fifth in the discus with a mark of 49.25 meters and Scharer became the eighth-furthest discus thrower in Hillsdale College history, placing seventh with a personal best throw of 48.50 meters on the day.

Saturday saw more strong showings in the field events for the Chargers as the meet drew to a close. Along with Hillsdale's four placers in the elite hammer throw, freshman Magnus Heckel won the open division of the hammer with a personal best throw of 52.81 meters, the eighth best throw overall on the day, and freshman Levi Willems took second with a mark of 50.93 meters.

Tommy Flud won the javelin for Hillsdale with a mark of 58.81 meters, while senior Alfonso Garcia moved into ninth all-time at Hillsdale in the outdoor triple jump with a leap of 13.87 meters, and Connor McCormick won the pole vault with a clearance of 4.70 meters as well.

On the track, Hillsdale's team of Henry Thuet, Seth Jankowski, Ross Kuhn and Mark Masaka took second in the 4x800m relay, in 7:52.50, while Zealand Tarrant took third in the 400m hurdles with a new personal best of 55.10 and Colsen Conway placed fifth with a time of 56.10.

Hillsdale's focus now coming off a big weekend is on the G-MAC Outdoor Championships in two weeks. The Chargers will host the three-day meet from April 29-May 1 and will hope to use home-track advantage to full effect as Hillsdale looks to improve upon a seventh place finish outdoors at the 2025 Championships.

First, however, Hillsdale has one more home meet on the calendar, as the Chargers host their annual Tune-Up meet on April 24-25 next weekend looking to prepare for the conference championship.