Concordia Track Finishes Indoor Season
by Garrett Suchanek
Concordia’s men’s and women’s track and field teams placed third and fifth respectively in the 2016 Indoor National Championships this weekend.
Junior Lucas Wiechman started Friday for the men’s team by finishing his final three events of the heptathlon. Wiechman claimed second place and eight team points in the men’s heptathlon with a total of 5,176 points, just 220 points behind the champion, Kale Wolken, who also won the GPAC heptathlon.
The men’s team throwers also claimed team points for Concordia on Friday. Concordia took first, third, fifth and seventh place in the men’s weight throw to earn a combined 22 team points. Juniors Cody Boellstorff, Zach Lurz and Philip Kreutzer took first, third and seventh respectively. Senior Josh Slechta took fifth place for Concordia. Boellstorff bested the field by almost five feet by hurling it 69’ 9”.
Junior CJ Muller also ran in the 600-meter run on Friday and qualified for the finals on Saturday by placing eighth with a time of 1:20.77.
On Saturday, the men’s team racked up team points in the shot put, pole vault, 600-meter run and the 4×400 meter relay.
Concordia got most of its team points from three medalists in the shot put finals. Lurz claimed first-place honors with a throw of 57’ 7 ¾”, while senior Jose Rojas came in second place with a throw of 55’ 6 ¼”. Junior Trey Barnes also earned All-American honors by finishing in eighth place with a throw of 52’ 11 ½”.
Wiechman continued to impress by finishing in fourth place in the men’s pole vault. Wiechman vaulted 15’ 7”.
In the 600-meter run, Muller finished in sixth place with a time of 1:21.23.
The final team points for the men came from the 4×400 meter relay team. The team of senior Jaap van Gaalen, freshman Nathan Matters, senior Trevor Bresson and Muller finished in eighth place.
The women picked up their team points on Friday in two events, the pole vault and weight throw.
In the pole vault, freshman McKenzie Gravo placed fifth with a vault of 12’ 2 ½” and earned four team points.
The throwers claimed the other 11 team points on the day by earning fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth place. Junior Kali Robb led the way for the Bulldogs with her fourth-place finish. Seniors Kattie Cleveland, Stephanie Coley and Liz King were the other medalists.
On Saturday, the Concordia women picked up their team points in three events: the shot put, the mile run and the 1,000-meter run.
The shot put event gave the Bulldogs the most team points on the day with 17 points. Freshman Samantha Liermann placed the highest for Concordia by finishing in second place. Coley was right behind her and finished in third place, while Robb claimed sixth place. Liermann threw for 47’ 10 ½”, just 4 ¼” behind the champion. Coley threw for 47’ 8” and Robb threw for 45’ 8”.
Senior Kim Wood earned the rest of the team points for the women. Wood finished third in the mile run and fourth in the 1,000-meter run to earn a total of 11 team points.
The NAIA Indoor Championships complete the indoor season for the Concordia men’s and women’s teams. Both men’s and women’s team will be back in action for the outdoor season. The first meet is the Hastings Bronco Invite and is scheduled for April 2 in Hastings.
