Track and Field dominates day one of the GMAC championships

By Matt Schaeckenbach 

Sprinting legend Usain Bolt once said, “I trained 4 years to run 9 seconds.”

Eight months of training. Dozens of workouts. Six meets. Hundreds of hours relentlessly repeating excellence until it becomes second nature. 

All for two days of competition. 

The Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) Championship was February 27-28 in Ashland, Ohio, at the University of Ashland. The championship provides athletes with one last opportunity to display their talents against the best of the best. The GMAC conference is home to some of the best athletes in the country, and at this championship cycle, that talent was on full display.

The Yellow Jackets came into the meet with several weapons locked and loaded, with superstars Brandon Rogers, Calvin Speicher, Summer Swartwout and Emily Walsh coming off an off week to prepare for the championship. Each athlete came into the meet with one of the top marks, and with so much talent gathered in one meet, there was only one question on everyone’s mind. 

How fast would they go?

Junior hurdle specialist Calvin Speicher stepped up first to answer that question. 

The former school record holder in the 60-meter hurdles, Speicher looked to reclaim that title in the prelims as he faced off against the nationally ranked sophomore from Ashland, Ty Allen. Allen got a strong start, beating Speicher to the first hurdle as the field cleared the barrier. 

But with each barrier, Speicher slowly gained ground, pulling even beside Allen at the third hurdle. Racing neck and neck to the line, they seemed to cross together as all eyes went to the clock.

“I felt pretty smooth,” Speicher said. “The time came up, and I knew it was a fast race.” 

Edging out Allen by a hundredth of a second, Speicher took the heat win with a new school record time of 7.93, shaving off five hundredths from the previous record.

“I had two weeks of good training, and I definitely knew I could run that fast,” Speicher said.

The time currently ranks him No. 10 in Division II, earning him another chance to push the record even lower at the National Meet in Virginia Beach this March. 

Just 15 minutes after Speicher’s record-setting showing in the hurdles, the Yellow Jackets got right back to work with the prelims for the 400-meter dash. Leading the way for Cedarville in this event was the school record-holder, Brandon Rogers. 

Rogers had a busy weekend in Ashland, running in the open 400 and also the 4×400 relay the next day. For him, it was all about staying fresh for day two. 

“My main goal was to run fast without straining,” Rogers said. “I didn’t want to overextend myself–just execute cleanly and stay controlled.” 

However, from his performance, no one would have guessed Rogers was holding back. 

He blasted out of the blocks, pulling easily into the lead as his teammate Jeremy Johnson filed in behind him. The pair held the first and second positions throughout the race. Rogers barely looked like he was straining as he came around the final curve, holding his powerful stride through the finish line as he crossed the line in first place with a time of 47.13.

The time was the second fastest in school history, and he still had another gear in him. 

Johnson crossed the line in second, posting a new indoor best with a time of 47.87. His teammate, junior Michael Braxton, also qualified for the final on day two, sprinting his way to the sixth fastest qualifying time with a 48.82. 

However, the women were not to be outdone by the men, as sprinter Summer Swartwout took to the track in the women’s 60-meter dash. 

Swartwout faced potentially the deepest field in the nation in her event, with three of her fellow GMAC competitors ranked in the top 10 nationally.

“I came into this meet with pretty low expectations due to the past couple of meets not going the best,” Swartwout said. 

But as she toed the line for the preliminary heat, something clicked. 

“God had other plans,” Swartwout said. 

From the gun, Swartwout blasted out of the blocks, quickly gapping the field as she zipped towards the finish line. Dusting the competition by over a tenth of a second, Swartwout crossed the line with a time of 7.44 seconds, the second fastest time in program history.

She ranks third behind Hillsdale’s Anna Roessner and Findlay’s Leah Smith, going into the finals on day two. 

But Swartwout’s dominance wasn’t done yet. Nearly two hours later, she took back to the track for the 200-meter dash prelims. She faced much of the same competition as in the 60, with top national rankings peppering the field. But as the gun went off, Swartwout got back to work. 

Running from lane six, Swartwout was pursued by Roessner from Hillsdale on the inside. Swartwout held the lead on the curve, but Roessner put in a surge to try to overtake as they came to the straightaway. 

Staying relaxed in the final sixty meters, Swartwout held off Roessner, pulling away in the final meters and crossing the finish line in first place with record breaking time of 23.92, shattering the previous record by over three tenths of a second. 

The time currently ranks her No. 11 in the country in the event, and along with Speicher and many others, she will get a chance to best that mark this March at Nationals. 

The final highlight of the day came from the women in the 4000-meter Distance Medley Relay. The event is an obscure one in track and field, with athletes running a 1200-meter leg, followed by a 400, then an 800, then a mile. 

The event sees the combination of all levels of track and field, with sprinters and distance runners teaming up to carry the baton around the track as quickly as possible. 

The team started off strong with Audrianna Enns, giving the Yellow Jackets a lead as she passed off to Mallory Gasper for the 400 leg. Gasper came out strong, gapping Ashland’s Olivia Saylor. However, Gasper began to fade in the final meters, giving up the lead to Ashland as she passed the baton to Sydney Diedrich for the 800. 

Diedrich faced off against one of Ashland’s strongest runners, Jade Avance–an All-American in the 800 meters outdoors. However, Diedrich held her own, passing the baton to superstar Emily Walsh for the final leg. 

Walsh had plenty of ground to make up on the mile leg, but lap by lap, she closed the gap to Ashland. As the bell lap came, she was less than twenty meters behind Ashland’s Hope Sievert. Though gaining in the final meters, she ran out of room, as the Yellow Jackets secured second place with a time of 11:38.20, which ranks No. 10 in Division II. 

Both programs are in the chase, and it’s anyone’s guess who would bring home the championship the following day. Cedarville looks to uncork all the stops, as superstars Josh Paul, Caleb Sultan and many more take back the track in day two of competition in Ashland. 

Matt Schaeckenbach is a Junior Liberal Arts major from Iowa City, Iowa. He loves spending time with his family, doing shenanigans with his friends, and encouraging others in Christ.