PROGRAM ORIGINS AND MILESTONES
Track and field for women became an intercollegiate sport at Hope College in 1976. It took just five years before the Flying Dutch won their first Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association outdoor championship. Indoor track & field debuted as an MIAA sport in the 2015-16 school year.
For the first time in the history of Hope College track and field, both 2012 women's and men's teams were crowned champions of the MIAA in the same season. Competing in the 121st MIAA Field Day, the Flying Dutchmen clinched their first outright men's league championship since 1986 while the Flying Dutch gained a co-championship in the women's standings for the first time since 1988. Coach Kevin Cole's Flying Dutchmen won both the league jamboree and Field Day crown to claim the outright title. It ended a string of 18 consecutive outright or co-titles by Calvin.
The Flying Dutch claimed six consecutive MIAA outdoor titles between 2018 and 2024. The 2020 MIAA Outdoor Championships were not held because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hope first repeated as MIAA champions in outdoor track & field in1981-82. The Flying Dutch claimed the first MIAA indoor team title in 2018 for a sweep of cross country and track & field championships in a single school year.
The Flying Dutch have repeated as MIAA Indoor Champions twice: 2023 and 2024 and 2020 and 2021.
ATHLETES OF NOTES
Sprinter Nora Kuiper became Hope's first national female track and field national champion as she won the gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the 2009 NCAA Division III championships. She also finished second at nationals in the 200-meter dash.
Erin Herrmann claimed the Flying Dutch's second national title with a winning performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships on May 27, 2017, in Geneva, Ohio. She clocked a time in the final of 10:21.08 that was the ninth-fastest in Division III history. She later ran the fourth-fastest steeplechase time in Division III women's history by going 10:13.39 on a June 11 all-star race in Nashville, Tennessee.
Two Hope athletes have been crowned four-time MIAA champions -- Paula Smith in the long jump (1983-86) and Marcia Vandersall in the 5,000-meter run (1990-93). Vandersall also achieved NCAA All-America status four times in her career, finishing sixth twice in both the 5,000 and 10,000-meter run.
Hope's first NCAA All-American in women's track and field was Karen Gingras-Hoekstra, who was sixth at nationals in the javelin in 1987. Gingras-Hoekstra was also a standout basketball player who held Hope's all-time scoring record for several years.
Hope's best performances at nationals have been the silver-medal finishes of Mary Busscher in the shot put (1989) and Jennifer VanderMeer in the pole vault (2004 and 2005).
As a freshman, Lindsay Lange broke five school records during the 2005 season -- 200 meters, 400 meters, 100-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles, and heptathlon. She achieved NCAA All-America honors all four years, as a freshman in 400 meters), and as a sophomore, junior and senior in the heptathlon.
Jennifer Price was a standout middle-distance runner, winning the MIAA 800 meter title three times (2001, 2002, and 2004) and achieving NCAA All-America honors as a senior with a seventh-place finish at nationals.
Pole vaulter Jennifer VanderMeer became the first Hope athlete to achieve All-America honors four consecutive years -- 2004 (second place), 2005 (second place), 2006 (sixth place), and 2007 (fifth place).
A national qualifier for four consecutive years in the 400-meter hurdles, Sarah Venlet achieved NCAA All-America honors as a senior with an eighth-place finish. She improved the Hope record in the event every year. It was 1:03.09 when she began her first year. As a freshman, she went 1:03.04, as a sophomore 1:02.64, as a junior 1:02.32 and as a senior 1:01.40.
Sheri McCormack finished sixth in the nation in the 1,500 meters at the 2014 Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships. She became Hope's first All-American in the event.
The Flying Dutch claimed two All-America performances at the 2016 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships in Waverly, Iowa. Erin Herrmann finished national runner-up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while Jane Pearson was sixth in the heptathlon. Herrmann was Hope's first All-American in the event.
Junior Mitchel Achien'g became the Flying Dutch's first indoor MIAA Most Valuable Athlete when she received the top field performer honor from the league's coaches. She set a school record in the indoor triple jump and won an MIAA title on her first try for the event.
Ana Tucker concluded a distinguished distance running career in 2023 with NCAA All-America honors in eight different events: (five outdoor and three indoor) despite missing one outdoor season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tucker finished as national runner-up in the indoor 1-mile as a senior and was All-American in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in back-to-back seasons as a senior and junior. Tucker was twice selected to the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) Academic All-America Teams in 2023 and 2022.
