The Great Plains Athletic Conference and Hauff Mid-America Sports named Concordia’s Jena Schwalenberg and Dana Schmidt as this week’s conference runners-of-the-week.
Schwalenberg, a freshman from Columbus, Neb., finished first in the Hastings Invite this past Saturday with a time 18:43. Seven teams and 72 total runners participated. The Concordia women finished first in the event and placed all five scorers in the top 10.
Schmidt placed third on Saturday at the Hastings Invite with a time of 25:41. Five teams and 81 total runners participated in the meet. Schmidt helped the Bulldog men to the team title and was one of five Concordia runners to place in the top 10.
Both Concordia squads remain highly ranked in the latest NAIA Top 25 Coaches’ Poll released on Wednesday. The women dropped one spot to ninth, while the men remained in fourth.
On the women’s side, the top five teams remained the same in this week’s poll. Azusa Pacific University (Calif.) earned 684 points and all 24 first-place votes to remain first. California State University-San Marcos (660), Biola University (635), Simon Fraser University (624) and Malone University (581) rounded out the top five.
The College of Idaho, who was unranked in last week’s poll, moved all the way up to sixth place with 569 points. Concordia University of California was seventh with 560 points, Cedarville University dropped one spot to eighth with 527 points, Concordia University (Neb.) was ninth with 508 points and Indiana Wesleyan University rounded out the top 10 with 487 points. Morningside College was selected 14th with 406 points, and the Mustangs were the only other women’s squad from the GPAC to be selected to this week’s top 25 poll.
On the men’s side, the top 10 remained unchanged from last week’s poll. Malone University captured 19 first-place votes and 620 points to hold its No. 1 ranking for the 29th consecutive week. No. 2 Southern Oregon University was awarded three first-place votes and 604 points, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University was voted third with 577 points and Concordia was selected fourth with 548 points. The University of British Columbia rounded out the top five with 527 points.
Shawnee State University was sixth with 524 points. Aquinas College (521) was voted seventh, California State University-San Marcos (473) was eighth, Olivet Nazarene University (466) was ninth and Lewis-Clark State College (449) rounded out the top 10. Doane College dropped two places to 23rd with 191 points. Doane was the only other GPAC school selected to this week’s poll.
The Concordia cross country teams will participate in the Mount Marty Invite on Oct. 24.