Track and field returns to Seward, Bulldogs win big after break

Photo Description: Junior Jenna Esch runs the 400-meter dash

Photo Credit: Courtney Wright (Photo from previous meet)

Cohen Carpenter

Sower Staff

After wintery weather canceled the last meet on January 12-13, the Bulldogs track and field team was back in action Friday at the Concordia Polar Dog Invite in Walz Fieldhouse, with events starting at noon.

The team, both men’s and women’s, wrapped up the day with 15 golds, five silvers and 11 bronzes. Furthermore, the Bulldogs set six different meet records across six different track and field events.

In the field, the Bulldogs impressed once again – finishing the day with five gold, three silver and four bronze across 12 events, both men’s and women’s.

In the men’s weight throw, senior Chris Wren took home the gold in back to back meets. Wren threw 63’ flat Friday, good enough for the gold but not a season personal best as Wren threw for 64’ 5” his first time out at the Early Bird meet.

Junior Abi Wohlgemuth was the lone lady Bulldog on the podium for weight throwing, placing third after tossing 54’ 3.75”.

The women threw their way onto the podium in the shot put instead. A duo of juniors, Abigail Gerber and Kamryn Pokorney took home the gold and silver respectively. Gerber threw a meet best 42’ 2.25”, just barely edging out Pokorney who tossed a 42’ 1.25”.

For the men, one Bulldog made the podium: Junior Darien Semedo threw 50’ 6.75”, a mere four inches short of silver.

Over by the sand, three Bulldogs took home a medal. For the women, freshman Kiki Nyanok jumped for 17’ 1.25” landing in third place. For the men, junior Joel Rathe and Sophomore Myles Sadd placed first and third respectively. Rathe jumped for 22’ 11.25” amd Sadd went for 21’ 2.5”.

Sophomore Josi Noble set a meet record Friday in the triple jumping, leaping 37’ 6.75”. Naturally, this was also a season personal best for Noble—adding an inch and a half over her first jump in the Early Bird meet.

Freshman Jonah Paulson and sophomore Aaron Spivey jumped within two inches of each other, finishing second and third in the triple jump event with a 45’ 4.25” and 44’ 3.5” effort, respectively.

Junior Zach Zohner more than made up for it for the men, setting yet another meet record when he hit 16’ 8.75”. This effort netted him the gold for men’s pole vault.

Senior Amira Cummings rounded out the pole vaulters, finishing third and bringing home the bronze after jumping 10’ 10.75”, just an inch shy of her season-best.

The final podium finish for the fielders was freshman Zoey Walker who set yet another meet record. This time however, the Bulldog had to share the record as freshman Aubrey DeGroot from Northwestern University tied Walker with a 5’ 5” jump. The two tied for gold in the event.

Over on the track, the Bulldogs were no less impressive. Concordia collected yet another meet record when junior Jenna Esch, senior Kylahn Freiberg, junior Julie McIntyre and senior Rylee Haecker ran for 9:15.26 in the women’s 4×800-meter relay. Concordia wasn’t satisfied with a meet record and gold however as junior Rhaya Kaschinske, sophomore Hannah Beintema, sophomore Keegan Beisel and freshman Claire Beikmann ran for 9:54.12 in the same event, netting them a third place finish.

The men similarly took home gold and bronze in the 4×800-meter relay. Senior Calvin Rohde, sophomore Trevor Kuncl, senior Micah Willweber and freshman Trey Robertson ran for 8:03.09 and took home gold while sophomore Hudson Opp, sophomore Westley Determan, freshman Nathan Pennekamp and freshman Justin Sherman took home bronze running an 8:32.91.

In the hurdle events, sophomore Adrianna Rodencal won gold in the 60m hurdle running an 8.91, just shy of her season personal best set last meet at 8.65. Nevertheless, Rodencal easily qualified for finals and subsequently placed first running 8.70 in the final matchup.

In the men’s 60m, Rathe ran a 7.03 in the placement good enough for qualification. However, Rathe did not fare as well in the finals, running a 7.09 and placing 7th.

After helping Concordia set another meet record in the 4×800-meter relay, Esch took home yet another gold in the 800-meter run, running a 2:22.32. Esch wasn’t done there either, as she collected her third gold medal when she ran a 58.54 in the 400-meter dash.

Junior Jordan Koepke also placed gold in yet another long sprint, finishing 1:39.01 in the 600-meter run, a full second above the rest of her competition in the field.

The mile turned out to be a two-horse race as two Bulldogs took home the gold. For the women, it was junior Rylee Haecker who finished a full eight seconds faster than the rest of the field, running a 5:12.64 mile. In the men’s corner it was junior Calvin Rohde that won gold with a 4:19.28 mile, narrowly edging out the second-place finisher by less than a second.

Sophomore Liam Fagan took home bronze with a 51.65 showing in the men’s 400-meter dash, a race in which all of the top four finishers finished within the same three tenths of a second (1st to 4th: 51.40, 51.64, 51.65 and 51.69).

In the women’s 1000-meter run, junior Rhaya Kaschinske took home the bronze, her second of the day following the 4×800-meter relay, when she ran a 3:07.36.

Rodencal later took her talents from the hurdles to the track as she finished second in the women’s 200-meter dash, running a 25.94 and just missing gold by one hundredth of a second (1st was 25.93).

The women’s domination of the long distance runs continued when Freiberg and Beisel placed first and second, respectively in the 5000-meter run. Beisel ran an 18:28.97 while Freiberg set yet another meet record on Concordia’s behalf when she ran a 17:48.25. The time was good enough to qualify Freiberg for nationals.

All in all, Concordia continued their domination established in the early bird meet, with 32 medals in total. The Bulldogs look to continue this hot streak at the next meet which is to be held on January 26th, here in Seward again at the Walz Fieldhouse. Events will kick off at 2pm.