LINCOLN, Neb. – To wrap up the weekend, 15 athletes represented Concordia University track and field at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational inside the Devaney Center in Lincoln on Saturday (Feb. 8). It was a lighter day of action after most of the team competed Friday at either the Husker Invite of the Fred Beile Classic hosted by Doane. The highlights on Saturday were turned in by two Bulldog 4x400 meter relays that blazed around the Devaney Center track.
Many of the highlights from Friday’s action were detailed HERE. Allie Brooks again broke her own pole vault record on Friday as part of a strong day one showing at the Husker Invite.
“It’s always a good thing when we add national qualifiers to the list and this weekend was no exception,” Beisel said. “There were a lot of cases where we had athletes already qualified who went out and proved their marks and were consistent for another week at a really high performance level. We had some really good stuff happen. We had two fantastic meets in a row (before this one). It’s really difficult for any team to collectively knock it out of the part at all of your meets.”
Due to the banked track at the Devaney Center, the times posted by Concordia’s relays will be adjusted for the national list. Even so, the results were impressive. In the women’s 4x4, Jacee Pfeifer, Sarah Lewis, Kennedy Mogul and Rachel Battershell teamed up on a time of 3:53.55. That raw number would have been good enough to lead the NAIA. It placed the Bulldogs in front of NCAA Division I counterparts from schools such as Drake University and the University of Illinois.
On the men’s side of things, the 4x4 ran to another national qualifying time of 3:19.77 (14th place out of 20 relays at the Husker Invite). The group was made up of Xavier Ross, Camden Miller, Colton Meyer and Henry Reimer. A week earlier, the Bulldog 4x4 finished in 3:20.47 at the Concordia Classic (good for fifth best in the nation).
In other Saturday happenings, Gavin DeHaai (15’ 7 ¼”) and Chase Berry (15’ 7 ¼”) both cleared the automatic national qualifying standard in the pole vault, Addie Shaw threw more than 45 feet in the shot put (eighth place out of 18) and three Bulldogs competed in the mile: Kylahn Heritage (5:14.13), Rebekah Hinrichs (5:28.39) and Alyssa Fye (5:29.45).
Just to recap from Friday, some of the most notable achievements were:
· Allie Brooks breaking her own pole vault record (13’ ¾”).
· Morgan De Jong setting a new personal best in the weight throw (57’ 9”) to move near the top five nationally.
· McKenzie Gravo clearing the national qualifying standard in the pole vault (11’ 6 ½”).
· Liam Hennessy throwing 51’ 3” in the shot put (currently 11th best in the NAIA).
The Bulldogs will host a meet for the final time this indoor season when the Concordia Invite unfolds on Friday (Feb. 21) inside the Fieldhouse. A large field of teams is expected to be on hand for the meet slated to get underway at 2 p.m. CT. A tentative meet schedule can be viewed HERE.