Hillsdale Invitational Results


April 14, 2012 – Division II women’s outdoor track has a new leader in the pole vault event after Saturday’s inaugural Hillsdale Invitational.

Junior Kayla Caldwell, who was inches away from being the national champion in the indoor version of the event, took over the top overall spot in the country with an NCAA auto-qualifying mark of 13 feet, 3 inches, in a spectacular performance. The pole vault event was moved indoors at this outdoor meet, because of wet weather that hit the Hillsdale area Saturday morning. However, the NCAA allows for marks achieved in an indoor venue during outdoor season to count towards national meet qualification, since the reason for the move is typically weather and safety concerns.

Caldwell threw in a third-place finish in the 200 meter dash, just for good measure. Her big day helped Hillsdale to a second-place finish at its home meet, only trailing Grand Valley State. Hillsdale finished with 139 points on the day, and set NCAA provo marks in five different events.

Teammates Jennifer Shaffer and Amanda Putt (pictured) are no strangers to being nationally recognized on the track, and both earned NCAA provo marks in the 800 meter run. Putt is already Division II’s top 1500 meter runner, won the 800 in 2:12.20, edging Shaffer by just .04 seconds. They are pictured here teaming up in the 4x400 meter relay.

One of the team’s most improved field event athletes, Adrianna Yancho, earned a provo mark in the high jump by clearing 1.63 meters in the high jump, finishing in third place.

Kathy Dirksen also performed well in her throwing events, finishing second in the shot put (12.29 m), third in the hammer throw (40.3 m), and third in the hammer throw (53.72 m), the latter being a provo mark.