Slechta Breaks School Record in Discus Throw

by Garrett Suchanek

The Concordia men’s and women’s track teams had a few athletes compete in the Drake Relays Thursday and Friday, as well as some Saturday, but the bulk of the squads competed in the Nebraska Wesleyan Spring Invite.

In the Nebraska Wesleyan Spring Invite, the Bulldogs had eight individual winners, highlighted by senior Josh Slechta, who broke the school record for discus throw. Slechta ousted Nebraska’s Khalil Davis for first place with a throw of 179’ 9”, 2’ 9” further than Davis’s throw. Junior Lucas Wiechman won the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 56.16 seconds. Sophomore Nathan Elbert won the javelin throw with a throw of 143’ 7”.

On the women’s side freshman McKenzie Gravo won the women’s pole vault with a vault of 12 feet even. Sophomore Samantha Liermann also claimed first-place honors in the shot put, throwing for 46’ 6 ¾”. Freshman Jasmine Eickhoff won the javelin throw with a throw of 120 feet even. Juniors Christine Beune and Emily Sievert both won races on the day, too. Beune won the 200-meter run, and Sievert won the 1,500-meter run.

At the Drake Relays, senior Kim Wood posted a national qualifying time in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:10.56. Senior Liz King finished in fifth place for the javelin throw by posting a throw of 154’ 1”. The last highlighted performance of the day was the men’s 4×400 meter relay team, who posted a season-best time of 3:17.40. The members of the relay team were seniors Jaap van Gaalen and Trevor Bresson, junior CJ Muller and freshman Nathan Matters.

There will be four Bulldog throwers competing on Saturday at the Drake Relays.