Nationally-ranked cross country programs impress in Yankton
By Taylor Mueller, Sports Information Assistant
YANKTON, S.D. – The Concordia Bulldog cross country program had a strong showing this weekend as it traveled to Yankton, S.D., and claimed second and third place for the men’s and women’s squads, respectively. The combined finish was good enough to earn the Bulldogs a trophy for the best overall finish by a program at the meet.
Senior Sarah Kortze raced to a first place overall finish for the first time this season in a time of 17:53 while teammate and fellow senior Jenna Schwalenberg claimed second place overall in 18:18.
“We had a very good race,” head coach Kregg Einspahr said. “I thought that Jenna and Sarah had great races and ran very well. We closed the gap considerably between us, Dordt, and Doane. I also thought that Kim Wood had a very good race. She’s never run cross country before and she’s making improvements. Our whole team is really improving and we’ve made some big strides from a few weeks ago.”
Freshman Kim Wood took third for the team in 19:24 and 16th place overall. Other Bulldogs racing were sophomore Erika Schroeder in 19:40 and freshman Megan Burma in 19:43.
On the men’s side, junior Hayden Hohnholt took third place overall with a time of 25:52. Senior Colin Morrissey was sixth place overall with a time of 26:01. Junior Beau Billings was 10th place overall in a time of 26:17. Sophomore Charlie Bloomfield took fourth place for the team in 26:40 while sophomore Ben Sievert took fifth for the team in 26:44.
“Hayden had an outstanding race today,” Einspahr said. “Colin is doing well for coming off an injury, Beau had a great race, and Ben did well for what may have been a food poisoning incident.”
While he was proud of the effort that both the men’s and women’s teams displayed, Einspahr noted that there is still progress that can be made.
“It’s good that both teams are having their best races at the end of the season,” Einspahr said. “We have to get better if we want to run well at conference. We still have some room to improve.”
The Bulldogs will look to finish the season strong on Nov. 3 when they travel to McCook Lake, S.D., to compete in the GPAC Championships with a trip to the National Championships in Vancouver, Wash., on the line.