Bulldog track and field team competes at GPAC Indoor championships, earning several medals
Sophomore Kiki Nyanok lands her long jump (photo from previous meet).
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Isaac Dawson
The Concordia Track and Field team competed at the Great Plains Athletic Conference Indoor Championships this past Friday and Saturday in Mitchell, S.D.
The team pulled off seven gold, six silver, and five bronze medals at the meet and no new national qualifiers.
The women got third place with 141.5 points behind Dordt at 145 and Doane taking the win again with 163 points. This ended Concordia’s 11 championship winning streak in place since 2019. There are two championships per season-one for the indoor and one for the outdoor. The outdoor championship in 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Concordia men just missed the podium in fourth place with 91 points behind Midland University at 111 in third. Dordt got second place with 159 points, and Doane snatched the top spot at 220.5.
Concordia did fairly well for itself in the field events. On the women’s side, freshman Adysen McCarter jumped 11.54 meters in the triple jump for second place, just .04 meters behind the first-place athlete.
Seniors Abigail Gerber and Abi Wohlgemuth took first place finishes in throwing events. Gerber threw the shot put 14.73 meters and Wohlgemuth threw for 17.83 meters in the weight throw.
On the men’s side, junior Mayson Ostermeyer cleared 4.95 meters in the pole vault for the gold. Junior Carson Fehlhafer also got first place in the shot put with a hefty toss of 16.04 meters. Fehlhafer followed up his podium placement with another in the weight throw to get bronze with a throw of 18.35.
In the running events, Junior Adrianna Rodencal went four for four in getting to the podium. Rodencal got second in the 60-meter dash at 7.66, first in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.49, and first in the 200-meter dash at 25.32. Her hurdles time was a new meet record for the GPAC Championship as well as a school record for Concordia with a previous record of 8.53.
Rodencal also led off in the 4×400 meter relay to get first place at 3:56.66 alongside senior Trinity Tuls, senior Isabelle Salters, and junior Kayla Kirchner. Tuls got third place in the 400-meter dash as well with a time of 58.53.
For the men, sophomore Trey Robertson ran 25 laps to get third place in the 5000-meter run with a time of 15:10.21.
Freshman Jonny Jurchen and sophomore Luke Hammang got first and third in the 3000-meter race walk. Jurchen came away with the meet record at 14:15.64. Hammang followed up with 15:39.63.
Representing the only sprinting event to score on the men’s side, freshman Easton Fries, junior Liam Fagan, sophomore Matthew Wing, and freshman Perry Chadwick got the bronze in the 4×400 relay at 3:24.54.
The team’s next meet is all the way down in Gainesville, Fla. for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Indoor Championships from Feb. 27-March 1.
