The Concordia University, Nebraska men's track team earned seventh place overall at the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships held May 21-23 in Edwardsville, Ill. Their performance was the best of any men's squad from the Great Plains Athletic Conference at the meet, nudging ahead of the Doane College men's team by one place. The Concordia women's squad finished at 19th overall, just behind Doane College.
"It was just a tremendous meet for us overall," said Dr. Kregg Einspahr, track coach for Concordia. "We were really pleased to have so many top-ten finishes in an extremely good field of competitors."
The Bulldogs were especially strong in throws. Brock Simonsen took second in the shot put with a throw of 56 feet, 4.75 inches, a school record. Simonsen also took fifth in the discus (170-08). Jordan Hinrichs took third in the hammer throw with a toss of 190-3, also a school record.
Chris Tegtmeier was another of Concordia’s top performers. His time of 21 minutes, 59.98 seconds in the 5,000-meter race walk earned him third place. Distance runner Zach Meineke took fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:06.43 and Michael Saalfeld brought home a fourth-place finish in the 800 with a time of 1:50.40. Triple jumper Drew Rodine took seventh with a leap of 46-10.25.
The top performance by the Concordia women’s squad was Emily Wolters’ fourth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles. Wolters was also the leadoff runner for the Bulldogs’ 1,600-meter relay team that finished fifth with a time of 3:49.27. Other relay team members were Katie Swanson, Charista Zehnder, and anchor Bethany Sutton. Zehnder, the female outdoor track athlete of the year for the GPAC, also earned a sixth-place finish in the long jump (19-1.50).
See also: NAIA outdoor championships page