When she arrived at Concordia in the fall of 2009, Sarah Kortze quickly learned about the exploits of those who came before her, specifically Rachael Geidel and Molly Engel. The accomplishments of these future Concordia Athletics Hall of Famers set a standard for Kortze to strive for over the next four-and-a-half years. Named the 2012-13 Nebraska State College Female Athlete of the Year by the Lincoln Journal Star, Kortze left her mark.
As Kortze prepares for another year of teaching science at Lutheran High School in St. Peters, Mo., she reflects upon her time at Concordia, the only college she visited out of her hometown of Rockford, Ill. Sixteen years after she began her freshman year, Kortze will add her name to the school’s Hall of Fame.
“I was surprised,” Kortze said of learning of her selection. “There’s been some really good athletes that have gone to Concordia. I remember being there and seeing the names of Molly Engel and Rachael Geidel up on the record board. I admired the strength of those two previous runners. It’s cool to know that I’ll be in the Hall of Fame with them. That’s really exciting.”
An All-American and a GPAC champion in both cross country and track & field, Kortze followed her older brother Aaron to Concordia from Rockford Lutheran High School. Immediately, Kortze became one of the team’s top runners while starring for Head Coach Kregg Einspahr’s squads. In some measures, she even surpassed program all-time greats as she broke school records that stand to this day – 17:30.57 in the indoor 5,000 meters and 36:33.47 in the outdoor 10,000 meters. In the mind of Kortze, her crowning athletic achievement occurred in November 2012 when she won the individual GPAC cross country title in McCook Lake, S.D.
The memories remain thick for Kortze, who has high praise for the Concordia community, her former professors and for Coach Einspahr. When it came time for Kortze to make her college decision, Concordia simply made too much sense considering the Lutheran connection, the presence of her brother and the high quality of the science and cross country and track programs.
“I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do,” Kortze said of her career path. “I knew I really enjoyed the sciences, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it. We would go out as a family and visit my brother every once in a while. Concordia was actually the only college visit I went on. Whenever I went there, I felt like there was a place for me, like I was part of a community and whatever I was bringing to the table mattered. That’s what drew me there. I talked with Coach Einspahr on one of my college visits and he spoke to the GPAC conference. There was good competition. I wanted to continue running and I liked that Concordia was a smaller school.”
Einspahr knew a tough, talented distance runner when he saw one, and Kortze was exactly that. Though she dealt with injuries at times throughout her college career, Kortze always bounced back strong. If she was in the race, she was in it to win it. Not only the 2012 GPAC cross country champion, Kortze twice won conference titles on the track in the 10k and once did so in the 3k.
Said Einspahr, “She was a very hard worker and a really tough competitor. Really tough. She thought about things and planned her races out. She was a fierce competitor. I just tried to maximize her potential. I think she did that. She was really tough to run against.”
Leading up to the 2012 championship, Kortze found herself struggling with pain that threatened to cripple her senior season. Kortze came up with an idea that she hoped Einspahr would approve of. She believed that taking one day per week off practice to go swimming at the YMCA would alleviate some of the pain and allow her to continue running at each meet. Einspahr knew what it meant to keep her healthy. In the middle of September her senior season, Kortze ran a 21:54.88 in the 6k and placed seventh at the Woody Greeno Invite, a meet loaded with stellar competition. Said Einspahr afterwards, “Sarah had one of the best races a Concordia female has ever had in a 6k race.”
Kortze appreciated how her coach could be adaptable to the needs of each individual. It turned out that a weekly swim was just what she needed. In addition to the GPAC title, Kortze went on to place in the top 15 at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships for a second-straight year.
“I felt like I could trust the stuff that he had us do,” Kortze explained. “It was my senior year in cross country, and I had struggled with a lot of different injuries throughout my career. That summer before my senior year, I had started swimming once a week and I found it very helpful. I asked Coach if it would be okay for me to swim once a week at the Y in Lincoln and miss practice. I felt that it might help me stay healthy. He let me do it, which I wasn’t sure if he was going to be okay with that. He taught biochemistry so he knew the science behind the human body and how it works.”
A big-time performer on the biggest of stages, Kortze experienced the grandest of meets. She ran in places such as Vancouver, Wash., Geneva, Ohio, and Marion, Ind., for NAIA National Championships. She also ran at the Drake Relays and in largescale cross country meets like the Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minn. It was at the 2013 Drake Relays that saw Kortze run the fastest 10k in women’s program history.
Undoubtedly, Kortze took something away from each of those experiences. However, the most special memory of her athletic career unfolded in May of 2012 when her brother Aaron competed collegiately for the last time. Heading into the 2012 Concordia Twilight Meet, Sarah had not yet qualified for outdoor track nationals in the 10k. In running in the same race as Sarah, Aaron set the pace, helping Sarah clock a time of 37:19.95. It was good enough to send Sarah to nationals and break the former school record set by Amy Luft in 1998. It had to be a proud moment for parents Donald and Joyce Kortze.
“I know I wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t paced me,” Sarah said. “He was talking to me and encouraging me the whole time. That was a really neat experience to have with him. He used his last race to do that, and it got me to nationals. That’s one of my favorite running stories.”
While that memory persists in Kortze’s mind, so too does a line Einspahr gave his team prior to a significant meet. Einspahr had a way of putting his runners’ minds at ease.
Said Kortze, “Coach would have a team meeting in the lobby before we’d go back to our rooms for the evening and he would say, ‘Remember that this is where you want to be.’ It was easy to get lost in the nervousness and the anxiety. I just appreciated him saying that because it reminded me that I really love running and that’s why I’m here. It helped turn that nervous energy into excitement. At that point, there was nothing you were going to do to make yourself faster. I still think about him saying that when I’m in a situation where I’m nervous about something.”
A high achiever athletically and academically (as her status as an Academic All-American attests), Kortze rarely had a free moment in her time as a student-athlete. She jokes that the demands of running and academics often had her slipping off to bed by 9 p.m., just when social activity on a college campus is heating up. Kortze may wish she had more opportunities to hang out with friends outside of running, but she will be forever thankful for her Concordia experience.
She says that many of her professors impacted the way that she teaches in her professional life. Said Kortze, “I just appreciated how much they cared about me as a person. When you’re in college and the classes are a bit bigger and more rigorous, it was really special to have that. I think that has really shaped me as a teacher. People often teach in the same way that they were taught. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. The care I experienced from my teachers and professors is part of what has shaped me as a teacher.”
Those lessons are more important and meaningful than the GPAC titles or the All-America awards. Even after being named to the Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025, Kortze understands how to place everything into the proper perspective.
“I think about my running career and how it influenced my life,” Kortze said. “Something that my mom told me once – she’s a runner too – ‘winning is for the mind, but running is for the soul.’ Winning awards is exciting. Our brain likes the attention. Remember that inner urge to run is a gift that God gave us. The higher you climb in the competition world, the harder it is to hold onto that inner love of the sport. Remember why you’re out there doing it. I imagine that God doesn’t care whether we win. When we use gifts He’s given us, it just makes Him so happy. I just try to remember that. It helps me come back to my center instead of getting distracted with awards and times and all that stuff.”