Concordia Invitational track meet brings several wins to track and field team members

Sophomore hurdles/sprints runner Adrianna Rodencal (far left) pulls ahead in the women’s 100-meter hurdles race.

Photo credit: Kayla Korb 

By Maddy Peters, Sports Editor

The Concordia track and field team hosted the Concordia Invitational on a windy April 5 for the first of their two home outdoor meets of the season.

The meet was originally scheduled to take place from April 5-6, but was moved entirely to Friday to avoid rain and high winds on Saturday. The meet garnered the team 13 golds, eight silvers, and six bronzes. There were two new automatic qualifiers as well.

Sophomore sprinter Adrianna Rodencal turned heads once again with her speed in the women’s 100-meter hurdles with a winning time of 13.84 seconds in the finals. She broke her own record twice in the same meet taking it down 11 milliseconds in the prelims from 14.00 to 13.89 and then shaving off a few more in the finals. She qualified for the national meet and sits at second on the qualifier board.

Rodencal also won second in the women’s 200-meter dash with a time of 25.74, just 30 milliseconds behind first place. The sophomore was also a part of the women’s 4×100-meter relay team alongside freshman Cambria Saunters, sophomore Kayla Kirchner and senior Kellie Rhodes. The relay team won second with a time of 47.66.

Juniors Jenna Esch and Jordan Koepke also continued to shine in their sprints, taking first in the women’s 400-meter dash and the women’s 400-meter hurdles respectively. Esch won with a time of 56.76 and Koepke with a 1:03:48. The two also competed as part of the second-place women’s 4×400 relay team alongside Kirchner and junior Trinity Tuls. The team finished with a 3:53.96 and qualified the group for the national meet. Freshman Hayden Kluthe competed in the men’s 400-meter hurdles and won third with a time of 58.31.

Senior distance runners Calvin Rohde and Kylahn Freiburg took the golds in the 1,500-meter runs. Rohde had a 3:59.65 and Freiburg had a 4:39.98. Rohde was also a part of the winning men’s 4×800 relay team alongside sophomore Trevor Kuncl, freshman Trey Robertson and sophomore Hudson Opp. They won with an 8:10.86.

In other distance events, junior Nate Pennekamp won first in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:51.81. In the men’s 5,000-meter race walk freshmen Luke Hammang and Caleb Schlichting won second and third respectively with times of 29:46.81 for Hammang and 30:35.47 for Schlichting.

The throwing events were separated into seeded and unseeded (except for the javelin) to split up the competition due to the presence of higher division schools like University of Nebraska Kearney.

The men’s hammer event went to the Bulldogs with senior Chris Wren taking first in the seeded section with a throw of 198’ 6” and a podium sweep for the unseeded section. Senior Darien Semedo took first with a throw of 180’ 4”, junior Connor Asche was second with a throw of 177’ 2” and another junior, Austen Rozelle was third with a throw of 176’ 8”.

Semedo also threw in the men’s shot put seeded section winning third with a throw of 52’ 4.75”. Junior Abigail Gerber won the gold in the women’s shot put unseeded section with a throw of 45’ 7”.

Junior Emma Lloyd won second in the women’s discus throw unseeded section with a throw of 130’ 4”.

Sophomore Matt Boyer and junior Gretchen Stottlemyre each won second in their respective javelin events. Boyer had a throw of 194’ and Stottlemyre had a throw of 131’ 4”.

Senior Zach Zohner won the men’s pole vault again, making a height of 16’ 4.75 despite the heavy winds blowing the vaulters around. This new height puts him even with The Master’s University’s Caleb Pouliot, who holds first place on the qualifying list. Zohner beat Pouliot at the indoor national meet a month earlier.

Another pair of Bulldogs swiped the gold in their respective events. This time it was junior Joel Rathe and freshman Kiki Nyanok in the long jump event. Rathe won with a jump of 23’ 0.5” and Nyanok with an 18’ 3.25”. Sophomore Josi Noble won third in the women’s triple jump with a jump of 37’ 3”. Freshman Zoey Walker won third in the women’s high jump with a height of 5’ 5”.

Next up for the track and field team is the South Dakota Track and Field Challenge hosted by University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D. on April 13. A starting time has not been announced yet.