NAIA Releases: men’s qualifiers | women’s qualifiers
SEWARD, Neb. – As officially announced on Tuesday (Nov. 7) by the NAIA National Office, the Concordia University Cross Country program has qualified its entire women’s team and Calvin Rohde individually for the 2023 NAIA Cross Country National Championships. The qualifiers will each make their way to Fort Vancouver, Wash., next week for the national meet. Among current Bulldogs, Rohde, Hannah Beintema, Keegan Beisel, Kylahn Freiberg, Rylee Haecker, Rhaya Kaschinske and Julie McIntyre possess previous experience at the national meet.
Head Coach Matt Beisel’s squads turned in 2023 GPAC team placements of second on the women’s side and third on the men’s side while in action this past Saturday (Nov. 4) in North Sioux City, S.D. In this week’s NAIA coaches’ polls the Bulldog women landed at No. 8 while the men’s team went unranked.
Individually, five Concordia runners emerged from last week’s conference meet with All-GPAC awards: McIntyre (second), Keeli Green (third), Rohde (sixth), Freiberg (seventh) and Beintema (13th). Both Trey Robertson (16th) and Beisel (17th) placed just outside of a top 15 finish required for all-conference accolades. Both Freiberg and Rohde are now three-time cross country All-GPAC award winners.
At the 2022 NAIA National Championships, the Bulldog women placed 27th while led by a 69th-place individual finish (out of 326 runners) from Freiberg, who ran the 5k course in Tallahassee, Fla., in 18:34.7. Among teammates, Freiberg was followed at the national meet by Beintema (151st), McIntyre (161st), Haecker (216th), Kaschinske (238th), Amie Martin (276th) and Beisel (286th). All-America awards are handed out to the top 40 finishers. The women’s program will be looking to earn an NAIA top 25 finish for the 20th time since 1994. As for Rohde, he ran at the 2021 national meet in Washington and completed the 8k race in 27:40.4.
The 2023 NAIA Cross Country National Championships will unfold on Friday, Nov. 17 at Fort Vancouver National Historic Championship Course in Vancouver. The women’s race is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. local time in Washington. The men will follow at 11:30 a.m. PT. For more information on the national meet, visit the NAIA website HERE.
2023 All-GPAC Honorees
Hannah Beintema | Bettendorf, Iowa
-Placed 13th at the 2023 GPAC Championships with a 6k time of 22:32.4.
Kylahn Freiberg | Nampa, Idaho
-Three-time All-GPAC XC (2019, 2022, 2023)
-Placed seventh at the 2023 GPAC Championships with a 6k time of 22.14.2.
Keeli Green | Kearney, Neb.
-Placed third at the 2023 GPAC Championships with a 6k time of 21:57.7.
Julie McIntyre | Chicago, Ill.
-Two-time All-GPAC XC (2022, 2023)
-Placed second at the 2023 GPAC Championships with a 6k time of 21:35.0.
Calvin Rohde | Reed City, Mich.
-Three-time All-GPAC XC (2021, 2022, 2023)
-Placed sixth at the 2023 GPAC Championships with an 8k time of 25:14.09.