Jurchen tops the charts, Rodencal branches out at Concordia Indoor Invitational
Sophomore Vaughn Hendrickson prepares to take the baton from junior Trevor Kuncl (photo from previous meet).
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Kai Olbrich
Sports Editor
Eleven national qualifying standards and event championships were achieved by the Concordia Bulldogs at the Concordia Indoor Invitational on Saturday.
Sophomore Jonny Jurchen was the star of the day as he achieved a personal best, meet record, fieldhouse record, national A standard, and a new National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics No. 1 time for 2025-2026 in the men’s 3k race walk. Jurchen’s time of 12:19.55 won the meet by a long shot and put him over five seconds clear of the next-best time nationally.
The Bulldogs swept the racewalk with freshman Jack Habegger claiming second with a 13:15.27 and junior Luke Hammang coming in third with a 13:34.94. Both Habegger and Hammang achieved the national A standard.
Freshman Makenna Starkey cleared all of the competition in the women’s high jump as she grabbed first place with a 5’ 7” jump. The mark tied the school record set in 2017 by Allie Brooks and punched her ticket to nationals with the fifth-best height in the country so far.
Senior Adrianna Rodencal was up to her usual activities on Saturday as she claimed first place in the prelims and finals of the women’s 60-meter hurdles. She ran away with the first round in 8.36 for a meet and fieldhouse record, but was slightly less dominant in the finals as she posted a time of 8.65. This was likely because Rodencal ran the open 400 in between the two races. She brought her usual standards to the race as she achieved the national A standard, running a 56.99 (56.25 converted), and came in second only to the national leader, Kat Vogt from Doane.
The freshmen were truly at it on Saturday as two athletes joined Starkey in winning their respective events. Avery Eaves won the men’s 60-meter with a 6.87, and the 200 with a 22.28, and Cooper Schelkopf won the men’s 600 in 1:23.57.
Junior Trey Robertson broke nine minutes in the men’s 3k for the first time this season and won the event with an 8:59.96. The Bulldogs stacked the event and came out with the top four finishers.
It was a good day for the juniors as well, as Jax Jacobsen placed first in the men’s pole vault with a 15’ 9 ¼” effort. He was matched by senior Evan Hill and a Wayne State athlete, but Jacobsen had the fewest misses up to that point, so he came in first while Hill ended the day in third. Both achieved the national B standard.
Junior Josiah Edwards achieved the national B standard and first place with his mark of 58’ 6” in the men’s weight throw. The final field event champion was sophomore Adysen McCarter, who leaped 38’ 7 ¾” in the women’s triple jump. McCarter’s mark cleared the B standard, but she already achieved the A standard earlier in the season.
The Bulldogs sent out a nearly all-freshman women’s 4×800 team against no competition with the hopes of national qualification, but the squad of Ashley Robertson, Lilly Kenning, Rachel Harris, and junior Landri Loos came up about 10 seconds short of the B standard with a 9:47.57, but earned a first-place finish in the event.
The men had a similar strategy as a team of freshmen — Schelkopf, Trenton Kumm, Keith Siek, and sophomore Lucas Corwin, competed against another Concordia team in the 4×800. The trust in youth paid off as the converted time of 7:44.65 put them ahead of the B standard and just a second away from the automatic qualification time.
The next event on the track and field agenda is the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships, hosted by Dordt University in Sioux City, Iowa, on Feb. 20-21, where the men’s and women’s teams will compete for conference glory, and individual athletes will try to utilize the last chance for national qualification.
