C harger S port S

Women's Basketball Chargers battle through break, emerge 5-4 in

By Moira Gleason Collegian Freelancer

The Hillsdale women’s basketball team dug deep over break, emerging 5-4 in the G-MAC and 12-7 overall with personal milestones along the way.

According to assistant coach Brianna Brennan, the team gained confidence and progressed defensively over the break.

“We’re finally seeing how good we can be when all five players work together on the defensive end, so that's been really fun to watch,” Brennan said. “Having each other's backs and taking more pride defensively has really stepped up our game. When we're feeling confident defensively, then it just allows us to continue to play free offensively and play aggressive. I think that's been the biggest change and step forward for us — getting defensive stops consistently.”

Senior Sydney Mills also hit a personal milestone over the break. For her performance against Ursuline and Ohio Dominican, Mills was named G-MAC women’s basketball player of the week for Jan. 9-16. In addition to becoming only the 20th player in Hillsdale women’s basketball to surpass 1000 career points, Mills has 869 rebounds for her career and averages 10.9 ppg and 10.4 rpg. With one more year of eligibility, she has a chance to become only the third Hillsdale women’s basketball player to hit 1000 career rebounds.

“She's someone who consistently has been a player for four years in the program,” Averkamp said. “I couldn't be more proud of her and the leadership role she's taking. She just keeps improving every year on different facets of her game.”

Mills expressed gratitude for her coaches and teammates.

“I'm just very fortunate to have really great teammates around me and coaches who push me every day and support me in ways way more than basketball,” Mills said. “I wouldn't be able to get points like that if I didn't have great teammates and great coaches.”

The Chargers started December with a disappointing 89-83 loss on the road against the Cedarville University Yellow Jackets, but quickly bounced back with a 70-55 victory against the Trevecca Nazarene University Trojans at home. The following week, the Chargers fell on the road 68-63 to the Tiffin University Dragons and 74-61 in overtime to the Ohio Dominican Panthers.

The Chargers came away with a 62-57 win against G-MAC rival Findlay Dec. 13, thanks to some impressive shooting by Touchette and Splain, who hit 22 and 11 points respectively.

Dec. 15 and 16, the Chargers traveled to Puerto Rico for two exhibition games and returned undefeated. According to Averkamp, the trip was a great

Swim Men's Basketball

Charger swim returns from break in double-dual meet

By Maddy Welsh News Editor

The Charger swim team started the year with excellent performances in a double-dual meet against Ashland University and Saginaw Valley State University. They spent a week preparing during their annual training trip to Florida, an opportunity to travel, bond as a team, and practice in a long course pool which makes short course performances stronger.

“It was a good meet to get back in the swing of things after a long break,” head coach Kurt Kirner said. “Times were as expected after a hard training trip but the efforts were exceptional. Many of the women mentioned that the water temperature was cold which affected their ability to warmup adequately, but they did not make that an excuse for not giving their best efforts.”

The meet opened with a commanding win in the 400 yard medley relay; junior Caroline Holmes, sophomores Emma Dickhudt and Megan Clifford, and senior Marie Taylor grabbed a win by a nine second margin, finishing in 4:02.69.

Sophomore Joanna Burnham came out on top of both her individual events and was named G-MAC swimming and diving athlete of the week for her performance at the meet. In the 400 yard individual medley, she finished in 4:44.88, just under five seconds faster than the second place finisher. In a tight 100 yard breaststroke race, she swam a 1:09.84. The event also saw Dickhudt in second (1:10.73) and senior Hannah Douthitt in fourth (1:10.98).

“I was happy with my swims for this point in the season,” Dickhudt said.

“Coming off of break is always really tough so I was