Bulldog track and field athletes set records at GPAC conference meet
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Kai Olbrich
Sports Editor
Records were broken, and national standards were achieved by the Concordia track and field team as it competed in the Great Plains Athletic Conference meet on May 1-2.
The conference record was broken six times across three events, while Concordia athletes posted 13 results that were enough for national consideration. The individual successes helped the men’s team to a fifth-place finish, and the women’s to a third-place finish.
Senior Adriana Rodencal was the biggest winner of all at the GPAC meet as she came away with three first-place awards, one second and the GPAC Athlete of the Meet award. Rodencal broke the conference meet record twice in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, first in the prelims with a 13.19, and then in the finals with a dominant 13.14-second run that put her close to the 13.04 she ran at the Jim Dutcher Memorial meet on April 17. Rodencal also broke the meet record in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 58.36.
Rodencal leads the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in the 100-hurdles by over half a second and has a narrow 0.42-second lead in the 400-hurdles. She will look to add more national championships to her list of accolades after her championship indoor season in the 60-meter hurdles.
Rodencal was also successful in the relays. She took first in the 4×400-meter relay along with sophomore Adysen McCarter, junior Tayden Kirchner and senior Kayla Kirchner. Their time of 3:47.14 was enough to achieve the A standard for national qualification.
Rodencal’s lone silver of the meet came in the 4×100-meter relay. Her team of McCarter, junior Cambria Saunders and Kayla Kirchner crossed the line in 46.80, which comfortably passed the national B standard.
The other GPAC records all came in the men’s 5k race walk. Sophomore Jonny Jurchen stole the show once again to achieve his fourth GPAC championship while breaking his own meet record. Jurchen raced to a time of 21:34.19, followed by freshman Jack Habegger with a 22:25.20, and junior Luke Hammang in 23:25.07. The trio took first, second and third and all achieved the national A standard while breaking Jurchen’s previous meet record.
Junior Emry Gutz earned his second consecutive GPAC championship in the javelin with his winning throw of 62.69 meters, over five meters further than last year and nearly two meters further than second place. His mark was just enough for the national A standard.
The hammer throws yielded success for the men and women as Nathan Baldwin and Harper Boche achieved the national B standard in the event, Baldwin with a second-place 57.14-meter throw and Boche with a fourth-place 52.03. Both of them have gotten A standard marks at previous points in the season.
Junior Trey Robertson was another Concordia GPAC champion, as he fought on the track and in the water in the 3k steeplechase. Robertson started first and never looked back, holding pole position all the way until the finish line, which he crossed in 9:38.21.
The men’s 4×800-meter relay was a back-and-forth affair in which the Bulldogs finished third in a very competitive field. The Bulldogs were in first, second, and third at points in the race and leaned on a strong anchor leg to keep them in title contention. The young squad led off with freshmen Keith Siek and Trenton Kumm, who were followed by junior Justin Sherman. Sophomore Lucas Corwin split a 1:52.85 in the last leg to take the Bulldogs in third place and earn them the national B standard.
Many Bulldogs have qualified for the national meet, and there are two more chances for athletes to punch their ticket to Asheville, North Carolina, on May 19. The first is the Concordia Twilight meet on May 8, and the second is the UNK Loper Twilight meet on May 9.
