Concordia track and field team takes 25 first place spots in dominant Hastings Invite showing

Junior Hannah Beintema crosses the finish line after a race (photo from previous meet).

Photo credit: Maddy Peters

By Kai Olbrich

The Concordia Nebraska track and field team took the Hastings Invite by storm on April 12 in Hastings, Nebraska, earning 25 first place finishes and 29 runner-up spots.

The meet was quite small regarding the number of competing schools, with just Concordia, Hastings, York, and Northwestern Oklahoma gunning for podium spots. This gave the Bulldogs a great opportunity to get a healthy number of athletes in winning places.

Four athletes achieved the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics A qualifying standard, while an additional four surpassed the B standard.

Junior Adrianna Rodencal’s 1:01.36 was two seconds faster than necessary to qualify nationally in the 400-meter hurdles. It also earned her first place in the event. Rodencal also took first place in the 100-meter hurdles and set a stadium record of 13.46 on her way to winning the event. Her time was also good for an automatic qualifying bid.

Her 4×400 meter relay finished the day by taking first place with a time of 4:03.96. That relay was run by Rodencal, Kirchner, Trinity Tuls, and Loseke.

The 4×100 ran 47.59 to win the meet and were less than a tenth of a second off of the B standard for national qualification. The relay was comprised of sophomore Cambria Saunders, junior Kayla Kirchner, senior Emily Loseke, and anchor Rodencal.

Tuls beat out Kirchner in a photo finish by one one-hundredth of a second to take the first-place crown in the 400 meters with a 58.82

Junior Matthew Boyer crushed the NAIA B mark of 58.09 meters with his first-place throw of 60.57.

Freshman Nathan Baldwin placed second in the men’s discus with a mark of 54.52 meters but comfortably passed the 51.70 A standard.

Senior Connor Asche was also runner-up in his event but achieved the B standard in the men’s hammer throw. He threw 54.94 meters.

Sophomore Kiki Nyanok earned first place in the women’s long jump with a 5.78-meter jump. Her final jump of the day was the mark that cleared the national B standard of 5.75 meters.

Senior Abigail Gerber outdid the national A standard by half a meter in the women’s shot put. Her throw of 14.61 meters was also enough to clear her competition on the day.

Senior Abi Wohlgemuth was able to find her feet in the women’s hammer throw. After placing second at nationals in the indoor season in the weight throw, she achieved the national hammer throw B standard of 50.95 meters with her 51.97-meter throw.

There were two other non-relay athletes to win multiple events. Freshman Adysen McCarter won the triple jump with an 11.58-meter mark. She also won the women’s 100-meter dash with a 12.14.

Sophomore Hayden Kluthe won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.64 seconds and then went on the win the 400-meter hurdles in 55.33 seconds.

Other event winners were junior Liam Fagan (400m), sophomore Claire Beikmann (800m), freshman Jarret Miles (3k steeplechase), junior Hannah Beintema (3k steeplechase), sophomore Aidan Limback (5,000m), junior Ellie Jander (10,000m), freshman Jaxon Lipker (high jump), junior Myles Sadd (long jump), junior Evan Hill (pole vault), sophomore Aliana McNair (pole vault), junior Carson Fehlhafer (shot put), and sophomore Aaron Spivey (triple jump).

The Bulldogs are back in action on April 16 in Crete, Nebraska for the Doane University Jim Dutcher Invite.