CC: Women sixth at Griak, beat region leader BHSU

Article Body: The Concordia cross country teams placed sixth (women) and 11th(men) at the 22nd Annual Roy Griak Invitational held Saturday morning in St. Paul, Minn.

The meet, hosted by the University of Minnesota, is one of the largest in the nation, drawing 350 teams and nearly 4,000 runners. The meet featured 10 races including three divisions for colleges (Division I, Division II and Division III) and high schools. The Bulldogs went up against NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA schools from around the country.

The women put together a solid team effort, finishing better than numerous NCAA Division II teams. In addition, the Bulldogs finished two spots better than NAIA Region III foe Black Hills State. Black Hills State entered the race as the top ranked team in the region and fifth ranked in the NAIA.

Other ranked team competing in the same division as the Bulldogs included Augustana (#5 in NCAA DII) who won meet and Indiana Wesleyan(#10-NAIA), North Dakota(#14-NCAA DII), Pittsburg State(#12-NCAA DII), and Minnesota-Duluth(#17-NCAA DII).

Seward native Taylor Felix led the Bulldogs finishing 32nd in the race with a time of 24:10.

"Taylor (Felix) is running very well coming off an injury from last year," Head Coach Dr. Kregg Einspahr said. "She put in a great summer and has worked hard to return to a high level of competition."

Felix was led the group of Bulldog runners that all finished within 30 seconds of each other.

Kayla Engel finished in 38th (24:16), Katie Swanson took 41st (24:20), Alicia Marteney was 49th (24:28) and Jacque Wiseman finished 61st (24:40).

"Our women ran very well," Einspahr added. "This race was probably the best example of a Concordia cross country team working together during an entire race."

For the men a pair of sophomores, David Goeglein and Zach Meineke, led the Bulldogs, finishing 20th and 57th respectively. Goeglein covered the course in 26:43 while Meineke finished with a time of 27:24. Bryan Felker finished with the same time as Meineke in 58th place. Concordia was without the services of junior Luka Thor who did not compete.

"David (Goeglein) had a very good race to finish in the top 20 among outstanding competition," added Einspahr. "We also had solid performances from freshman Tyson Billings and sophomore Jon Grotefendt."

Billings and Grotefendt finished 61st and 66th respectively with times of 27:27 and 27:32.

Next up the Bulldogs will host the Concordia Invitational. The meet is slated for this Saturday, Oct. 6 at 10:30 a.m.

Posted by site staff on 10/1/2007 1:00:00 PM

CC: Women sixth at Griak, beat region leader BHSU

CC: Women sixth at Griak, beat region leader BHSU

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