Bulldog Weekly Report (May 1)

By Jacob Knabel on May. 1, 2018 in Athletic Announcements

Bulldog Athletic Association Athletes of the Week

Male: Nick Little, Baseball

Little, a native of Lithia, Fla., fired eight innings and struck out 13 hitters while allowing just one run in a win over Dakota Wesleyan last week. During his stellar sophomore campaign, Little has gone 9-2 with a 1.99 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 86 innings (11 starts).

Female: Grace Bernhardt, Softball

Bernhardt, who hails from St. Charles, Mo., was busy last week, tossing 25.1 innings over four appearances. She earned a pair of wins while allowing a total of just six earned runs on 24 hits. On the season, the freshman pitcher is 10-6 with a 4.69 ERA over 100 innings.

Previous athletes of the week
April 24 – Tucker Platt (track & field) / Thomas Sautel (baseball) / Hhana Haro (softball)
April 17 – Scott Johnson (track & field) / Luke Zoller (tennis) / Adrianna Shaw (track & field)
April 10 – Ben Pratt (track & field) / Murphy Sears (golf)
March Athletes of the Month: Wade Council (baseball) / Philly Lammers (basketball)
April 3 – Scott Johnson (track & field) / Hhana Haro (softball)
March 27 – Cade Moring (baseball) / Mackinsey Schmidt (softball)
March 20 – Wade Council (baseball) / Philly Lammers (basketball)
March 13 – Cody Williams (track & field) / Samantha Liermann (track & field)
February Athletes of the Month: Deandre Chery (wrestling) / Philly Lammers (basketball)
Feb. 27 – Nick Little (baseball) / Philly Lammers (basketball)
Feb. 20 – Deandre Chery (wrestling) / Samantha Liermann (track & field)
Feb. 13 – Jerry Stepps III (wrestling) / McKenzie Gravo (track & field)
Feb. 6 – Michael Duffy (wrestling) / Colby Duvel (basketball)
January Athletes of the Month: Kyle Pierce (basketball) / Dani Hoppes (basketball)
Jan. 30 – Kyle Pierce (basketball) / Anna Baack (track & field)
Jan. 23 – Jacob Cornelio (track & field) / Dani Hoppes (basketball)
Jan. 16 – Josiah McAllister (track & field) / Brenleigh Daum (basketball)
Jan. 9 – Jared Woods (wrestling) / Philly Lammers (basketball)
December Athletes of the Month: Cordell Gillingham (basketball) / Philly Lammers (basketball)
Dec. 12 – Cordell Gillingham (basketball) / Taylor Cockerill (basketball)
Dec. 5 – Brevin Sloup (basketball) / Sydney Feller (basketball)
November Athletes of the Month: Tarence Roby (football) / Quinn Wragge (basketball)
Nov. 28 – Jake Hornick (basketball) / Quinn Wragge (basketball)
Nov. 14 – Cameron Devers (wrestling) / Jeannelle Condame (soccer)
Nov. 7 – Tarence Roby (football) / Emily Deschaine (cross country)
October Athletes of the Month: Ryan Durdon (football) / Lindsey Carley (soccer)
Oct. 31 – Ryan Durdon (football) / Kaitlyn Radebaugh (soccer)
Oct. 24 – Marcelo Hernandez (soccer) / Lindsey Carley (soccer)
Oct. 17 – Carlos Ferrer (soccer) and Grady Koch (football) / Sami Birmingham (soccer)
Oct. 10 – Micah Lehenbauer (soccer) / Kaitlyn Radebaugh (soccer)
Oct. 3 – Micah Lehenbauer (soccer) / Maria Deeter (soccer)
September Athletes of the Month: Tarence Roby (football) / Lindsey Carley (soccer)
Sept. 26 – Kordell Glause (football) / Emily Deschaine (cross country)
Sept. 19 – Lewis Rathbone (soccer) / Victoria Cera (soccer)
Sept. 12 – Tarence Roby (football) / Murphy Sears (golf)
Sept. 5 – Jack Bennett (soccer) / Lindsey Carley (soccer)

News and notes:

Tempo emphasized during transitional spring for volleyball: With precious few weeks to get accustomed to a new head coach, members of the Concordia University volleyball team have gone about the spring semester like a DVR with three arrows pointing to the right. While head coach Ben Boldt has put an emphasis on urgency, he won’t be reinventing the wheel. “Volleyball is volleyball,” says Boldt. For more on the spring volleyball season, click HERE.

GPAC week arrives for spring sports: While the GPAC golf championships concluded last week, the rest of spring sports will get their conference postseason events underway this week. It will get started with head coach Ryan Dupic’s baseball squad beginning tournament action in Fremont, Neb., on Thursday. For complete GPAC championships information, check out the links below. GPAC champions will be crowned in tennis and track and field on Saturday, softball on Monday (May 7) and baseball next Tuesday (May 8).
-Baseball
-Softball
-Tennis
-Track & Field

Bulldog Coaches Show airs every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. CT: The Bulldog Coaches Show is underway in its third year of existence. The show airs live for a half hour every Thursday beginning at 5:30 p.m. CT on KTMX-FM 104.9 Max Country. The weekly feature can also be heard live via 104.9 Max Country’s website or by downloading the Max Country app. Throughout the 2017-18 season, Bulldog football, men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball contests will be aired live on Max Country. Tyler Cavalli serves as the host of the coaches’ show as well as the play-by-play voice for football and basketball. Frank Greene called volleyball action again this past fall.

Concordia Sports Network: Live webcasts for most home varsity contests can be accessed by visiting http://www.cune.edu/csn at game time. Check team schedules/results pages for webcast dates. Scrimmages, exhibitions and junior varsity events are not broadcasted.

Golf

  • The 2017-18 Concordia golf seasons are in the books. Both squads wrapped up their respective campaigns with two rounds of GPAC championship action last week. The men took to the course first and shot scores of 311 and 308 while competing at Woodland Hills Golf Course in Eagle, Neb., on April 23-24. They wound up in fifth place on the overall leaderboard. Meanwhile, the women concluded the conference tournament at Quail Run Golf Course in Columbus, Neb., April 27-28 and turned in scores of 377 and 368. They placed 10th. For more on Bulldog golf, click the following links: men | women.
  • The men had hoped to make a run at a conference championship after concluding the fall with a fourth place GPAC standing that put them 14 strokes out of first place. They slid back to fifth with two rounds that were higher than the team’s season average. Junior Nolan Zikas also lost some ground on the final day of the championships after he shot an 80. He still managed a cumulative score below 300 (70-73-76-80–299) and placed 16th on the individual leaderboard. The La Vista, Neb., native still has a shot at earning his third career All-GPAC award.
  • Though the final two rounds of the GPAC championships may not have gone as hoped, the Bulldog men still improved from their seventh-place conference finish a year earlier. Their four-round conference championships total of 288-295-311-308–1,202 was actually 25 strokes better than what Northwestern recorded when it won the 2016-17 GPAC title. Additionally, the 299 Zikas turned in was three strokes lower than the 302 carded by 2016-17 conference champion Corey Matthey of Morningside.
  • The record books reflect the continued growth of the men’s program. Zikas finished 2017-18 with a season average of 74.69 over his 16 rounds and became the new school record holder for lowest 18-hole average in a season. Additionally, senior Russell Otten finished his run ranked third on the program’s all-time list for top career average (77.13). As a team, the 2017-18 Bulldogs set a new standard for average score (306.88). Concordia carded a score of 300 or lower in seven of its 16 rounds.
  • Freshman Kort Steele performed the best among Bulldogs during last week’s action (76-76). Steele climbed to 19th in the final standings with a 72-hole score of 79-71-76-76–302. Following Steele on the leaderboard, Otten (77-70-80-79–306) tied for 25th, Tyler Ehresman (70-82-79-76–307) shared 28th and Tylar Samek (71-81-84-77–313) tied for 32nd. Concordia was one of four GPAC teams to use the same five players in each conference championship round.
  • On the women’s side, sophomore Murphy Sears continues to soar. She made a move into the top 10 on the final conference leaderboard via a four-round total of 85-86-84-83–338. Her eighth-place finish guaranteed a second-straight All-GPAC award for the Crete native. She placed in the top 10 of five events this season while leading the team with an 83.36 average. Sears even earned an NAIA national golfer of the week award after shooting a career low 73 at the CSM/Midland Invite.
  • The four teammates to join Sears at the GPAC championships over the weekend at Quail Run were Haley Nolde (100-100-95-87–382), Payton DeMers-Sahling (101-94-103-95–393), Paighton Barbre (106-105-96-103–410) and Madison Pitsch (102-107–209). Nolde’s 87 on the second day marked a career low by six strokes. She placed 32nd in the GPAC. Three Bulldogs turned in at least one score under 90 throughout the season, Sears, DeMers-Sahling (84) and Nolde.
  • The women finished the 2017-18 season with an 18-hole average of 376.64 over 14 rounds. Their top performance of the season was a 343 and third-place finish that occurred at the CSM/Midland Invite on April 5. The next lowest scores were 357 and 367 that both came at Highlands Golf Course at the Concordia Bulldog Invite (April 19-20).
  • Many familiar faces will be back for both of head coach Brett Muller’s squads. Ehresman and Otten were the lone seniors for the men while the women did not feature a single senior. Both teams will return a significant anchor with Zikas for the men and Sears for the women.

Tennis

  • The regular seasons for Concordia men’s and women’s tennis ended in Sioux City, Iowa, on April 27 with a pair of matches for both sides. The scores were identical. The Bulldog men dropped a 5-4 decision to Morningside and then throttled Mount Marty, 9-0. The women did the same against the same opponents. Both teams also suffered losses to Hastings and the women defeated College of Saint Mary as part of last week’s action. Entering the postseason, fourth-year head coach Joel Reckewey’s squads are 12-9 (3-4 GPAC) on the women’s side and 8-10 (1-4 GPAC) on the men’s side. The conference tournament is up next. For more on Concordia tennis, click the following links: men | women.
  • The men got a confidence boost heading into the GPAC tournament. They had come up empty in previous attempts to earn a conference win in losses to the likes of Doane, Midland, Hastings and the Morningside. After trailing 2-1 in doubles against Morningside, the Bulldogs made a run in singles. They won three singles matches and fell just short at No. 5, a spot held down by Conner Works. Thomas Greeff (No. 1), Jeremy Berryman (No. 3) and Josh Miller (No. 6) claimed victories. Those efforts led into the shutout of Mount Marty.
  • Mount Marty (0-7, 0-5 GPAC) made a serious push in only a couple of matches. Caleb Lauby (No. 4) fended off Melvin Gabel, 3-6, 6-3, 10-7, in the only singles match that required a 10-point tiebreaker. The rest of the singles lineup for Concordia included Greeff (No. 1), Zoller (No. 2), Berryman (No. 3), Works (No. 5) and Miller (No. 6). The doubles matches were blowouts with the Bulldogs winning by scores of 8-2, 8-1 and 8-2, respectively.
  • Through 18 matches, the men have combined to go 47-61 in singles play and 28-26 in doubles action. Zoller enjoyed the most success in conference play. He went 3-2 in GPAC singles matches and is the team leader in overall singles wins (10-8). Next in line for the team singles lead are Berryman (9-9), Greeff (8-10) and Miller (7-9). Three players also have at least 10 doubles wins: Berryman (11-7), Gio De Moares (10-6) and Zoller (10-8).
  • The women were in action three days in a row last week and went 2-2 to finish the regular season. The Bulldogs also got a win over College of Saint Mary, a team that started conference play at 3-0 and finished as the league’s No. 3 seed. In the victory over the Flames, Annie Horn and Kirsten Wagner teamed up on an 8-6 win at No. 1 doubles. The Bulldog combos of Claudia Miranda Viera and Katelinn Wurm at No. 2 and Alison Ebel and Kayla Smock at No. 3 also turned in victories to seemingly put Concordia in control of the match. However, the Flames won four of the first five singles matches that went final. Kayla Smock then came through with a victory at No. 6 singles to lift Concordia to a win.
  • Horn had her streak of 10-straight wins during GPAC regular-season action interrupted by Kelsey Brown of Hastings. The Denver, Colo., also dropped a tight match to College of Saint Mary’s Christina Ternent. Horn then finished the regular season by claiming victories over No. 1 singles counterparts from Erica Sherman and Laura Cattle. Horn now has 40 career singles victories as a Bulldog.
  • Through 21 matches, the women have gone a combined 66-54 in singles play and 36-24 in doubles action. While Horn (12-7) is the team singles wins leader, teammates Miranda Viera (10-8), Wurm (8-9), Ebel (7-5) and Wagner (7-11) come in next. Five players have at least eight doubles wins: Wurm (11-7), Horn (9-9), Wagner (9-10), Ebel (8-3) and Smock (8-4).
  • Both Bulldog squads will be No. 5 seeds in their respective brackets. The fifth-seeded men will take on fourth-seeded Morningside in the quarterfinals at 9 a.m. on Friday. Meanwhile, the fifth-seeded women will play fourth-seeded Doane in the quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m. on the same day. All GPAC tournament matches will be played in Fremont High School. The semifinals will also be played Friday with the championship contests set for Saturday at 10 a.m.

Baseball

  • Three GPAC doubleheaders made up the final week of the regular season for the Bulldogs, who still had work to do to guarantee their spot in the conference tournament. After being swept by Midland in a home twin bill on April 25, Concordia regrouped and took three of four from Dakota Wesleyan in a four-game weekend series. Fourth-year head coach Ryan Dupic’s squad ended the regular season at 25-20 overall and at 13-13 in conference play (tied for sixth place). The Bulldogs will be the No. 6 seed in the GPAC tournament. For more on Concordia baseball, click HERE.
  • Prior to Dupic’s arrival in Seward, the program record for wins in a single season had been 25. The Bulldogs have now reached that mark in each season over the past four years. Concordia has also finished at least .500 in GPAC play for the third year in a row. The high point so far during Dupic’s tenure was last season’s 34-win campaign that included a GPAC regular-season championship. The current class of four-year seniors have gone 113-87 during their careers as Bulldogs.
  • The backbone of this year’s squad is a school record breaking pitching staff. Last week Nick Little (most wins in a season) and Cade Moring (most strikeouts in a season) both became new program standard bearers. A senior from Eagar, Ariz., Moring tossed a seven-inning complete game versus Dakota Wesleyan and racked up 11 strikeouts, pushing his season strikeout total to 98. Meanwhile, Nick Little struck out 13 hitters over an eight-inning performance against Dakota Wesleyan. Little is now 9-2 with a 1.99 ERA over 86 innings this season.
  • Dupic’s pitching staffs have made a habit of re-setting the team’s single-season strikeout record. The staff has now combined for 361 punch outs, equaling the record put forth by the 2017 squad. This year’s group has been particularly lethal, averaging 9.82 strikeouts per nine innings. Moring’s strikeout rate of 15.29 per nine innings ranks second best among all NAIA pitchers. Little’s 83 strikeouts are now No. 3 on the school’s all-time single-season list.
  • A native of Lithia, Fla., Little credits his rise to the advancement of his slider, which has given him a wipeout pitch. Based on the numbers, Little ‘should’ win the GPAC pitcher of the year award. Among conference pitchers, Little ranks No. 1 in ERA, wins (9) and innings pitched (86), third in opponent batting average (.218) and fourth in strikeouts (83). When factoring in GPAC games only, Little is 6-1 with a 2.13 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 55 innings. Little has worked at least seven innings in each of his 11 starts.
  • While Little has been fantastic, a big reason why Concordia ranks second in the GPAC in ERA is because of the work of its bullpen. Case in point was last week’s doubleheader versus Midland. The Warriors did all of their damage against Bulldog starters. The ‘pen combined to toss eight scoreless frames. The ace among Concordia relievers has been Jake Fosgett, whose devastating breaking ball has helped him pile up 20 strikeouts in 13.1 innings. Dupic’s go-to options out of the bullpen have been Fosgett (1.35 ERA in 11 appearances), Nathan Buckallew (3.26 ERA in 11 appearances), Wyatt Weller (4.61 ERA in 11 appearances) and Dylan DuRee (4.97 ERA in 10 appearances).
  • Junior Thomas Sautel has been the team’s most consistent offensive force of late. He will bring an eight-game hitting streak into GPAC tournament action. During that stretch, Sautel has gone 12-for-27 (.444) with three runs scored, two doubles, a home run and eight RBIs. Sautel was named the GPAC player of the week on April 24. Since April 10, Sautel has raised his average from .312 to .367. The Littleton, Colo., native ranks sixth in the GPAC in batting average. Teammate Christian Meza is second with a .401 average.
  • Inconsistent offensive production and a struggling infield defense were the main culprits that prevented Concordia from defending its 2017 GPAC regular-season title. The Bulldogs have committed 82 errors in 45 games and rank ninth in the conference in fielding percentage (.944). Offensively, Concordia has averaged 5.1 runs per game in conference play. In eight of 26 GPAC games, the Bulldogs scored two runs or less.
  • Concordia’s only avenue back to the national tournament is to win the GPAC tournament (or finish as the postseason runner up to regular-season champion Northwestern). The Bulldogs will open up play in the double-elimination tournament at 3 p.m. on Thursday as part of the Midland Bracket on Fremont, Neb. Concordia and Doane (26-23, 15-11 GPAC) will go head-to-head in the first game at the Midland site. The Bulldogs will play again on Friday at either 12 p.m. or 3 p.m., pending the outcome on Thursday.

Softball

  • Last week marked the conclusion of the regular season for Concordia, which has been flirting with the .500 mark all season. The Bulldogs began the week by splitting a home doubleheader with Dakota Wesleyan (April 23) and continued with a sweep at College of Saint Mary (April 25) and a split with Dordt (April 28). Each of the four games played at home were decided by a single run and three of them went to extra innings. Fifth-year head coach Todd LaVelle’s squad will head into the postseason at 21-19 overall and at 10-10 in conference play (seventh place). For more information on Concordia softball, click HERE.
  • Eight of the team’s 20 GPAC games were one-run contests. The Bulldogs went 3-5 in those instances with two of those victories coming last week. Concordia salvaged splits against Dakota Wesleyan and Dordt with walk-off victories. The walk-off hits were delivered by Kenna Heath and Leah Kalkwarf, respectively. The Bulldogs went 10-4 against conference teams that finished outside the top three in the standings.
  • Freshman Hhana Haro looks to be a sure first team all-conference choice and a candidate for GPAC player of the year honors. A native of Garden Grove, Calif., Haro continues to lead the conference in batting average (.500) and on-base percentage (.538) while also ranking second in slugging percentage (.767). Haro now has 73 hits on the year, equaling a program single-season record that she currently shares with Stacey Miller (73 in 1998). Haro already owns the program record for most doubles in a season (20).
  • Fellow freshman Grace Bernhardt should also be considered strongly for all-conference recognition. She’s been particularly effective during conference play. In GPAC games only, the St. Charles, Mo., native is 5-2 with a 2.54 ERA in 11 appearances (52.1 innings). Bernhardt was busy last week. She threw 25.1 innings and allowed only six earned runs on 24 hits. She picked up wins in outings against College of Saint Mary and Dordt.
  • Concordia played the entire second half of the GPAC regular-season schedule without starting shortstop Jamie Lefebure, who has been sidelined by injury. The Crete native had been sizzling in GPAC play. In the first 10 games of conference action, Lefebure hit .393 (11-for-28) with three doubles, a home run and seven RBIs. Lefebure has steadily improved during her collegiate career, raising her batting average from .175 as a freshman to .306 as a sophomore and .329 so far as a junior. In her place, Tori Homolka has moved over to fill the gap at shortstop. Lefebure is expected back soon.
  • LaVelle put each of his three seniors in the lineup in game one of the senior day doubleheader versus Dordt. The class includes Brittany Arent, Kaitlyn Buresh and Janey Pasold. Of them, Pasold has gotten the most action. The Norfolk, Neb., native transferred to Concordia via Central Community College. Since then, Pasold has played in 74 games and has hit .282 (35-for-124) while often starting in the outfield. The majority of Buresh’s playing time has come as a pinch runner.
  • LaVelle’s teams have enjoyed success in GPAC tournament play. In LaVelle’s first season at Concordia (2014), the Bulldogs won five elimination games in a row, placed as the tournament runner up and reached the NAIA national tournament. The 2015 squad then won the GPAC tournament after finishing the regular season as the No. 7 seed. LaVelle’s conference tournament record is 13-7 over the previous four years.
  • The Bulldogs have made it five years in a row with a GPAC regular-season record of at least .500. During LaVelle’s tenure, Concordia has recorded conference marks of 12-8, 10-10, 10-10, 14-6 and 10-10. LaVelle’s five-year GPAC record now stands at 56-44. He has led the program to its only two national tournament appearances.
  • The Bulldogs will try for their first GPAC postseason title since 2015. The conference tournament will begin on Friday with Concordia and No. 23 Morningside (28-11, 16-4 GPAC) squaring off in Sioux City, Iowa, at 12 p.m. The Bulldogs will then play at either 2 or 4 p.m. on Friday, pending the outcome of the first game. One team from the Morningside Bracket will be eliminated on day one. Concordia could also play at 12 or 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Track & Field

  • A week that saw Concordia athletes scatter among three different meets proved fruitful heading into the GPAC championships. Four individuals combined to post five new automatic national qualifying marks as the Bulldogs were represented at the Prairie Wolf Invite (April 26), the Drake Relays (April 27) and the Concordia Blizzard Buster (April 28). The addition of the Blizzard Buster means that head coach Matt Beisel’s program will host three meets this outdoor season. For more information on Concordia track and field, click HERE.
  • The complete list of Bulldogs who appear on the national leaderboard with either automatic or ‘B’ standard qualifying marks is shown below. Concordia athletes have combined for 17 ‘A’ marks and 11 ‘B’ marks. Adrianna Shaw leads the way with three automatic marks. Twelve different individuals have clinched spots at the outdoor national championships.
    • Men’s 4x800 meter relay (B, 7:45.84)
    • Evan Asche: half marathon (B, 1:14:50)
    • Blake Becher: ranks 14th in NAIA in decathlon (6,146)
    • Simon Brummond: pole vault (B, 15’ 1”)
    • Jacob Cornelio: hammer throw (A, 187’); discus (B, 160’ 5”)
    • Morgan De Jong: discus (B, 142’ 2”)
    • Jessica Deterding: triple jump (B, 37’ 7 ¼”); ranks sixth in NAIA in heptathlon (4,392)
    • Jazzy Eickhoff: javelin (B, 128’ 4”)
    • Jodi Fry: shot put (B, 43’ 8 ½”)
    • Taylor Grove: half marathon (A, 1:28:07)
    • Madison Holt: hammer throw (A, 165’ 3”)
    • Scott Johnson: triple jump (A, 47’ 7 ¾”); long jump (B, 23’ 5 ¼”)
    • Leah Larson: triple jump (A, 38’ ¾”)
    • Samantha Liermann: shot put (A, 48’ 9 ½”); hammer throw (A, 172’ 11”); discus (B, 143’ 8”)
    • Kennedy Mogul: ranks 18th in NAIA in heptathlon (4,185)
    • Tucker Platt: pole vault (A, 15’ 5”)
    • Johanna Ragland: shot put (A, 44’ 8”); hammer throw (A, 164’ 10”)
    • Adrianna Shaw: shot put (A, 46’); discus (A, 155’ 7”); hammer throw (A, 169’ 5”)
    • Bethany Shaw: discus (A, 150’ 8”)
    • Carley Skorepa: discus (A, 146’ 3”); hammer throw (A, 165’ 2”)
    • Jan Steinbrueck: discus (B, 143’ 9”)
    • Cody Williams: pole vault (A, 15’ 5”); ranks ninth in NAIA in decathlon (6,317)
  • The latest Concordia additions to the national qualifying field were Leah Larson (triple jump), Johanna Ragland (hammer throw), Carley Skorepa (discus and hammer) and Cody Williams (pole vault). Skorepa broke loose by hitting the ‘A’ standard in two different events. She joins Samantha Liermann (shot put and hammer), Ragland (shot put and hammer) and Adrianna Shaw (shot put, discus and hammer) as Bulldogs with multiple automatic national qualifying marks as part of a vaunted group of women’s throwers.
  • Williams and men’s pole vault group is also one of the nation’s best. The scary thing about it is that many of them are freshman. While Williams busted loose with an ‘A’ standard and a personal best, fellow freshman Tucker Platt also cleared 15’ 5” for the second time this outdoor season. Three other Bulldogs at the Blizzard Buster were also well over 14 feet: freshmen Sam Sisco (14’ 7 ¼”) and Dalton Berry (14’ 7 ¼”) and junior Simon Brummond (14’ 7 ¼”). Brummond has hit the ‘B’ standard (15’ 1”) this spring.
  • Already a two-time shot put national champion, Liermann may contend for a title in more than one event at the outdoor national championships later this month. She achieved a personal best of 172’ 11” in the hammer at the Blizzard Buster and moved up to No. 3 on the national list. Liermann continues to hold the No. 1 national rating in the shot put (48’ 9 ½”). She’s also just outside the top 10 in the discus (143’ 8”).
  • The addition of assistant coach Wayne Earney has made a difference for Concordia in the jumps. Larson PR’d with a triple jump of just over 38 feet (38’ ¾”) at the Blizzard Buster to ensure a spot in the national championships. Teammate Jessica Deterding was not far off with her personal best of 37’ 7 ¼” – a ‘B’ standard. On the men’s side, Scott Johnson has clinched a berth to nationals in the triple jump (47’ 7 ¾”).
  • Select members of the team were also at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, this past Friday. The Bulldog men’s 4x800 meter relay quartet of Christian Van Cleave, Thomas Taylor, Nathan Matters and Josiah McAllister clocked a ‘B’ standard of 7:45.84 on the blue oval. Concordia also entered a women’s 4x400 meter relay that finished in 4:00.88 (Kennedy Mogul, Miranda Rathjen, Tori Beran and Jamie Nikodym).
  • There were plenty of other noteworthy efforts at the Blizzard Buster. Adrianna Shaw turned in a PR in the discus (155’ 7”) and took first place. Sarah Allen had a personal best in the triple jump (34’ 1 ½”). Jodi Fry achieved a PR in the hammer throw and an outdoor PR in the shot put. Bethany Shaw again eclipsed the ‘A’ standard in the discus and had a PR in the hammer. Tyrell Reichert alleviated some of his disappointment in the pole vault with a personal best in the triple jump.
  • It’s GPAC championship week. The meet is set to get underway on Friday and run through Saturday evening. Morningside’s Olsen Stadium in Sioux City, Iowa, will serve as the venue for the championship meet. Concordia is hoping to improve upon its GPAC indoor finishes of fourth (men) and fifth (women), respectively. The most recent conference title for Concordia track and field was produced by the men at the 2015 GPAC outdoor championships. The meet schedule for this weekend can be viewed HERE.