Concordia Indoor Invitational allows Bulldog track and field eight first-place wins
Senior Emily Loseke runs in the women’s 60-meter dash (photo from previous meet).
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Kai Olbrich
The Concordia University Bulldog track and field team excelled at the Concordia Indoor Invitational with eight individuals taking first place in their events.
Freshman Easton Fries was perfect in the 60-meter hurdles as he won both the preliminary round and the final. His final time was 8.23. Sophomore Hayden Kluthe was close to Fries in the 60-meter hurdles. He ran his in 8.35 to finish third. Fries was also a part of the first-place men’s 4×400-meter relay team. Also on the relay squad were junior Liam Fagan, sophomore Matthew Wing, and freshman Perry Chadwick. They won the event in 3:23.33.
Sophomore Trinity Tuls continued her 400-meter excellence, by winning the race in a time of 58.44, besting second place by 0.3 seconds. Senior Isabelle Salters had two podium finishes on the day. She took runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.11 and then placed third in the 400 with a 58.85. Fellow sprinter junior Kayla Kirchner was the top Bulldog in the women’s 200-meter race. Her time of 26.07 earned her third overall.
Sophomore Cambria Saunders got third place in the women’s 60-meter dash. She had a time of 7.90 in the all-Great Plains Athletic Conference final heat.
Another women’s mid-distance athlete who had a successful day was junior Josi Noble. Noble’s 600-meter race came down to wire, and timing technology was needed to determine the winner. Noble came out on top by five-thousandths of a second. Noble’s time was 1:40.955, just ahead of Bethel, Kansas’ Cleo Naranjo. The other mid-distance win went to senior Katelyn Nix, who took third in the women’s 800 with a time of 2:29.21.
Freshman Jonny Jurchen once again crushed the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national A standard in the 3000-meter race walk. Jurchen won the race in a meet-record time of 13.27.23, which is 55 seconds ahead of the national standard.
Junior Trevor Kuncl got third place in the mile. His time of 4:27.33 was just three seconds off of first.
The men’s distance medley took second place in its race. The team comprised of sophomore Trey Robertson who ran the 1200-meter leg. Freshman Lucas Corwin took the 400, sophomore Justin Sherman ran the 800, and freshman Vaughn Hendrickson anchored the relay with the 1600. The team beat the NAIA A standard by just over half a second. On top of his distance medley performance, Corwin took second place in the men’s 600. His time of 1:25.30 was just half a second off of first.
Robertson, another distance medley competitor, also got second in his open event. He ran 8:52.17 in the 3000-meter run. Coming in right behind Robertson was freshman Cole Yunker who completed his 3000-meter race in 8:55.07.
Junior Mason Ostermeyer has the current NAIA top mark for the pole vault at 16’ 4 ¾.’ Ostermeyer vaulted 16’ ¾” which was nearly 1.5 feet higher than the second-place competitor.
Senior Abi Wohlgemuth destroyed the NAIA A standard of 17.24 meters in the women’s weight throw. Her mark of 19.24 meters was also enough to win the meet and was .37 meters short of the school record. Senior Abigail Gerber, despite getting second place in the women’s shot put with 14.20 meters, broke the NAIA A standard of 14.04 meters.
The Concordia jump squad had a few podium finishes at the invite. Junior Aaron Spivey got a personal record and meet win in the triple jump with a 45’ 1.5.” That mark put him one inch ahead of second place. Junior Myles Sadd got second in the men’s long jump with a mark of 6.80 meters.
For the women, freshman Adysen McCarter broke into the podium with a third-place finish in the women’s triple jump with an 11.14-meter jump. Sophomore Kiki Nyanok got third place in the women’s long jump. Her jump of 5.32 meters was the top NAIA mark. Finally, senior Amanda Steinke was third in the high jump with a 1.55-meter jump.
The Bulldog’s next outing is the GPAC Indoor Track and Field Championship. That meet is the last chance for athletes to qualify for nationals. The meet will take place on Feb. 14 and 15.
