CRETE, Neb. – After weeks of grueling training sessions, including amped up weight lifting and added mileage in practices, the Bulldogs took on the Dean White Invitational. The men placed second overall and the women ended up placing third after Hastings and Doane.
Head coach Matt Beisel was especially proud of the men today as they were only a few points short of Doane.
“Pretty much the whole front pack was primarily Concordia guys and Doane guys mixed up with a few Hastings guys thrown in,” said Beisel, a 1992 graduate of Concordia who is in his first year of coaching the Bulldogs. “We did really well against everybody else, but Doane ended up taking it. I was really happy that our guys ran as well as they did.”
A challenging course was not going to stop Emily Wetzel from achieving her personal best of 23:26.02. Other Concordia standouts included Emily Sievert (20:25.49), Taylor Grove (20:32.09), Marti Vlasin (21:16.72), Abby Protzman (21:28.19) and Jacy Johnston (21:38.82) for the women. Sievert placed eighth and Grove placed ninth in today’s race.
The top five for our Concordia men included Patrick Wortmann (27:54.89), Kohlton Gabehart (28:02.63), Evan Asche (28:31.17), Thomas Taylor (28:39.15) and Christopher Shelton (28:49.86). Wortmann, sixth, and Gabehart, ninth, represented Concordia in the top ten.
The Bulldogs will run their next race in Sioux City, Iowa on Oct. 8 at the Briar Cliff University Invite. The race will begin at 10 a.m.