NAIA Indoor National Championship results in five Concordia Nebraska All-American awards
Freshman Vaughn Hendrickson rounds the bend on the men’s distance medley relay (photo from previous meet).
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Maddy Peters
Sports Editor
Concordia track and field sent 24 athletes to Gainesville, Fla. to compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Activities Indoor National Championship from Feb. 27-March 1.
In total the women’s team scored 13 points and placed 20th while the men’s team scored 3.5 points and placed 56th. There were a total of five All-American track athletes from Concordia.
Senior Abi Wohlgemuth was the big winner of the meet for Concordia with a second place finish in the women’s weight throw. Wohlgemuth had a throw of 18.94-meters or 62’ 1.75”. This was her second career All-American award.
Fellow senior Abigail Gerber placed eighth in the women’s shot put with a throw of 13.68-meters or 44’ 10.75”. This was her third career All-American award.
Junior Adrianna Rodencal achieved her first All-American award in the 60-meter hurdle dash with another school record of 8.44 seconds. This was also the first time Rodencal had ever made the finals of the event after being stuck on the cusp of qualifying in previous national meets.
Freshman Jonny Jurchen snuck his way into All-American status on Friday with a seventh place finish in the men’s 3,000-meter race walk with a time of 13:44.23. Jurchen was initially placed in ninth, but the first and second place winners of the event were disqualified, bumping Jurchen up two places.
Junior Mayson Ostermeyer placed seventh in the men’s pole vault with a mark of 4.80-meters or 15’ 9” to net himself his second career All-American award. Ostermeyer entered the championships with the number two spot on the qualifying list, but was unable to get past the usual 4.90-meter mark he had been hitting consistently throughout the indoor season.
Concordia had three other automatic qualifying athletes or teams. Sophomore Addie Reimer placed 13th in the women’s high jump with a mark of 1.60-meters or 5’ 3”.
The women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Rodencal, senior Trinity Tuls, senior Isabelle Salters and junior Kayla Kirchner were unable to get through the preliminary round with a time of 3:52.63. The team placed 11th and was just over a second away from qualifying.
The men’s distance medley relay team of sophomore Trey Robertson, junior Liam Fagan, sophomore Justin Sherman and freshman Vaughn Hendrickson were also unable to make it out of the preliminaries with a time of 10:06.53. The team placed 13th.
The team takes a break for most of March to gear up for the outdoor season. Their next event is the UNK-Hastings College Central Nebraska Challenge on March 29 in Kearney.
