Jude Misko...two-time NCAA Division III hammer champion
Misko wins second national hammer title; Hilt finishes 14th at NCAA Championships
GENEVA, OH (May 28, 2022) – Rutgers University-Camden senior
Jude Misko (Philadelphia, PA/Cherry Hill East) went to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship as the defending national champion in the hammer throw.
Misko is coming home as a two-time national champion.
Misko claimed his second consecutive national title in the hammer throw here Saturday, edging Matt Ausse of Carthage in the 20-man field. Misko's first throw of the day, 60.42 meters, held up to win the national title. Ausse threw the second-place distance of 60.25 meters on his final throw, while Misko's final throw produced a 60.35-meter throw. They were the only two athletes to throw over 60 meters at the competition.
Misko, who won the 2021 NCAA title with a hammer throw of 60.48 meters, becomes only the second two-time national champion in Rutgers-Camden program history. Tim VanLiew captured back-to-back NCAA Division III javelin titles in 2012 and 2013.
Misko's title was actually the third national championship of his career, counting his junior college accomplishments. He won the NJCAA Division III hammer crown while competing for Rowan College at Gloucester County in 2017.
Misko was one of two Scarlet Raptors competing in the NCAA Championship, which was held at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Senior
Emily Hilt (Mickleton, NJ/Kingsway Regional), making her first career appearance at the NCAA championships, finished 14th of 22 athletes in the women's hammer throw. She threw 49.50 meters on her final attempt.
Misko broke his own Rutgers-Camden program hammer record on April 2 with a throw of 62.21 meters. For most of the season, that was the longest Division III throw in the nation until it was passed May 18 by Widener University's Alex Kristeller, with a throw of 62.39 meters. While Kristeller entered the NCAA meet as the top seed, with Misko seeded second, the Widener star finished seventh nationally with a throw of 57.75 meters.
Misko's second NCAA title capped a stellar senior season in which he won six of his seven hammer competitions this spring. His only loss came to four non-collegiate athletes at the Danny Curran Invitational on April 2, the day he set the Rutgers-Camden record of 62.21 meters.
Misko captured his third New Jersey Athletic Conference championship in the hammer throw at the NJAC meet May 8, breaking his own meet record with a throw of 61.92 meters. That performance earned him honors as the Outstanding Male Field Athlete at the NJAC meet. During the 2021-22 indoor season, Misko captured the NJAC title in the weight throw and also set the Scarlet Raptors' program record with a weight throw of 17.71 meters.
Emily Hilt
Misko also has won the ECAC hammer title during outdoor season and the ECAC weight throw title indoors during his Rutgers-Camden career.
Hilt, meanwhile, entered the NCAA Championship as the 19th seed in the women's hammer throw on her way to a 14th-place finish. After a throw of 48.39 meters on her first attempt and a foul on the second attempt, she threw 49.50 meters on the final attempt at her first NCAA Championship meet.
Hilt's final season included a stellar performance at the ECAC Div. III Track & Field Championships, when she won the hammer title with a throw of 52.42 meters to break her own Rutgers-Camden program record. She added ECAC titles in both the shot put (12.93 meters) and the discus (34.87 meters). Earlier in the month, Hilt won the hammer title at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a meet-record 51.02-meter throw, while also finishing second in the conference shot put competition. During indoor season she earned NJAC Second Team honors in both the weight throw and the shot put.
In addition to her program-record hammer throw at the ECAC Championships, Hilt also set Rutgers-Camden records in the discus (37.49 M) and shot put (13.03 M) this spring. She set the women's weight throw program mark (16.15 M) during the 2021-22 indoor season and also holds the program's indoor mark in the shot put (13.01 M), set on Feb. 24, 2020.
During the 2020-21 scholastic year, Hilt captured NJAC Second Team in the discus and NJAC Honorable Mention in both the shot put and the hammer. The 2019-20 indoor season saw her earn NJAC First Team honors in the shot put and NJAC Honorable Mention in the weight throw. She also captured the ECAC weight throw title and finished second in the ECAC shot put competition.
Sat. 28
NCAA Div. III Outdoor Track & Field Championships
(at SPIRE Institute, Geneva, OH)
Men's hammer results Women's hammer results
