SEWARD, Neb. – The final home meet of the 2020 indoor season served as a satisfying appetizer for the conference championships coming up in one week. The top five nationally-ranked Concordia University track and field programs welcomed 16 teams and nearly 1,000 meet entries to the Concordia Invite on Friday (Feb. 14). In her last meet inside the Fieldhouse, senior Addie Shaw went out in style in highlighting the star power of the Bulldog women.
Head coach Matt Beisel’s squads (ranked second in the NAIA on the women’s side and fourth on the men’s side) tacked on three fresh automatic national qualifying marks to their season total. The Concordia Invite marked the fourth home meet of the indoor campaign.
“I think we’re in a very good position to place high at the GPAC,” Beisel said. “I think our women could win and our men could place top two. Last week was a mediocre meet as far as overall accomplishments. This week we saw a huge number of personal bests across the board. We didn’t put the kids in a ton of events. We’re de-loading them and preparing them for a very important meet next week. At the same time, we saw a lot of good things happen.”
Shaw has been on a mission in her senior season. She has remained at a consistently elite level this winter and even managed to raise the bar on Friday with new personal bests of 63 feet in the weight throw and 48’ 9 ½” in the shot put. Both tosses landed her in first place at the meet, ahead of NAIA national leaders in Lavon Davis of Grand View University (Iowa) in the weight throw and Kate Grint of Doane in the shot put. The school record holder in the weight throw, Shaw moved up to No. 2 on the program’s all-time women’s shot put list.
This is what Shaw expects out of herself. Said Shaw, “I’ve been practicing really well. It just hadn’t been clicking in meets. We’ve been working on a lot of good stuff. It just hasn’t all come together at once. Today I feel like I got a step closer than I have been. There’s still a lot more to do. Also, (there was motivation because) this was the last time competing in the Fieldhouse as seniors.”
The brand new ‘A’ standards were turned in by Concordia’s women’s 4x4800 meter relay, sophomore Rachel Battershell (600 meters) and senior Jerod Peters (shot put). Like Shaw, Battershell has become a broken record in her repeated excellence. A four-time GPAC Athlete of the Week this indoor season, the Wheatland, Wyo., galloped to a Concordia Invite winning time of 1:36.73 in the 600. She’s also qualified for nationals in the 60 meter hurdles (school record holder) and is the NAIA national leader in the 400 meters.
The Bulldog women’s pole vault crew already rated as the best in the NAIA (according to the USTFCCCA). Things got even better on Friday with freshman Josie Puelz clearing a PR of 12’ 10 ¼” for the second best mark in Concordia history. Based on the national leader board entering the day, Puelz ranks behind only teammate Allie Brooks (13’ ¾”).
Back to Peters, the current top men’s shot put performer in the program. Peters previously ranked in the top 10 nationally in the shot put, but he made sure to guarantee his spot at nationals by landing a PR of 52’ 4,” placing him sixth at the Concordia Invite. The throws were loaded in all categories on Friday with NAIA leaders present in the men’s and women’s weight throw and women’s shot put. In the weight throw, Bulldogs Jacob Cornelio, Morgan De Jong and Liam Hennessy also repeated automatic national qualifying performances.
In the very first race of the day, the quartet of Alyssa Fye, Miranda Rathjen, Rebekah Hinrichs and Kylahn Heritage team up on an automatic national qualifying time of 9:37.42. They were also standouts for a women’s cross country team that won a GPAC title this past fall. The women’s team now has relays qualified for nationals in the 4x4, 4x8 and the distance medley.
In other noteworthy efforts, Cora Olson (18’ 3 ¾”), Jamey Broman (18’ 3”) and Katie Severt (18’ 1”) all turned in personal bests in the long jump that each met the ‘B’ national standard (all top five marks in school history). Adrianna Sims (36’ 1 ½”) neared the ‘B’ mark in the triple jump. In addition, Jacee Pfeifer and Sarah Lewis clocked in under a minute in the 400 meters and Emily Loy recorded a PR of 9.18 in the 60 meter hurdles.
On the men’s side, Jordan Lorenz placed second in the 3,000 meters (9:07.67), Colton Meyer placed first in the prelims of the 60 meter hurdles (8.33) before a mishap in the finals and Cornelio placed second in the weight throw behind only an NCAA Division II competitor. Concordia did not run a 4x400 meter relay on either side.
The season’s most anticipated moments are yet to come. The Bulldogs will join the rest of their conference rivals at the GPAC Indoor Track & Field Championships next Friday and Saturday at Dakota Wesleyan in Mitchell, S.D. The GPAC website will include the meet schedule and heat sheets when they come available.
“All of us coaches had good things happen within our event groups,” Beisel said. “We’re in a pretty good mood going into next week with a lot of optimism about what we can do. We’ll do our best to get our kids prepared mentally and physically. They’ve been doing the right stuff and I think they’re ready to go to battle.”