Hohnholt, Wood emerge as Bulldog frontrunners in opening meet

By Taylor Mueller, Sports Information Assistant

SEWARD, Neb. – The cross country season is officially underway as the Bulldogs got off to a fast start when they hosted the annual Concordia Short Course Meet, which featured a 5K course for both the men and women.

Playing host to Hastings College as well as a few alums, the Bulldogs swept the men’s and women’s races.

For the men, senior Hayden Hohnholt ran away with a first place finish in a time of 15:56, besting teammate Ben Sievert, who took second place in 16:20. A host of Bulldogs followed suit, as junior Creighton Pearse took third in 16:35, junior Josh Allwardt placed fourth in 16:37 and sophomore Jordan Potrzeba claimed fifth in 16:39. A rare perfect score was broken up by one alum who placed third overall. Overall, the top men’s times were notably faster than last season, pointing to improvements in strength and maturity among the Bulldog runners.

On the women’s side, sophomore Kim Wood raced to a strong second place overall finish and first for the team with a time of 20:14. Freshman Jessamyn Sweet had an impressive showing, racing to a third place overall finish behind Wood, and crossing the finish line in 20:21. Sophomore Megan Burma took third for the Bulldogs, racing to a time of 20:56, while juniors Haley Harpham and Renee Williams took fourth and fifth in 21:01 and 21:12 respectively.

The Bulldogs will travel to Lincoln, Neb. on Sat., at Pioneer Park to compete in the Woody Greeno Invite, a large meet that contains a few hundred runners in each of the men’s and women’s races. The women’s race begins at 10 am with the men’s race to follow.