By Taylor Mueller, Athletic Communications Student Assistant
YANKTON, S.D. – The men’s and women’s cross country squads wrapped up the regular season with numerous strong performances in Yankton, S.D., where the Bulldog women placed fourth and the men fifth at Saturday’s Mount Marty Invite.
Senior Kim Wood led the way for the 22nd-ranked Bulldogs with a superb performance, establishing herself as a front runner and maintaining her position throughout the race. Wood placed fourth overall in 18:39.
“Kim Wood ran really well,” head coach Kregg Einspahr said. “She got out well, ran from the front, it was probably the best race of her career. She really put it on the line.”
Sophomores Jordyn Sturms and Emily Sievert followed suite with strong performances of their own. Sturms raced to an 11th place finish in 18:59 with Sievert on her heels in 19:00 and a 12th place finish.
“We had solid races from Jordyn Sturms and Emily Sievert,” Einspahr said. “We still have a lot of work to do to try to improve our positioning from the four, five and six spots.”
Rounding out the top five were sophomores Elizabeth Rasmussen in 19:57 and Lauren Wilcox in 20:11.
Despite the Bulldogs’ efforts, the day did not come without frustrations as Concordia dropped its first meet to a key conference rival. With the conference meet just two weeks away, Einspahr stressed the importance of finishing the season strong as the Bulldogs prepare to head into a loaded field at the conference meet.
“Overall it was a good day today,” Einspahr said. “It was disappointing to get beat by Morningside for the first time of the season. We have a good team overall, it will be interesting to see what we can do at the conference meet. It is awful close, I think, for the team race. It’s very close for five or six teams in the conference right now. Dordt is the favorite I suppose, but they’re not as strong as they have been in the past. Dordt, Morningside, Concordia and Hastings are all right in the mix of things. It’ll be very interesting at the conference meet. There are a lot of very comparable and competitive teams.”
On the men’s side, Jordan Potrzeba came through with a monster performance, leading the Bulldogs with a third place finish in 26:07.
“Jordan Potrzeba had a tremendous race,” Einspahr said. “I think that was maybe the best race of his career. He did a good job of getting good positon early and then moving up through the race to finish as high as he did.”
Senior Taylor Mueller continued to improve, finishing 17th in 26:44. Freshman Thomas Taylor took 26th overall in 27:10 while sophomore Patrick Wortmann wasn’t far behind in 27:23.01. Wortmann edged out teammate Sophomore Kohlton Gabehart who placed fifth for the team in 27:23.58.
“That’s the best men’s race we’ve had and we’re getting better every race,” Einspahr said. “We had some outstanding races. Taylor Mueller had a good race. He was very strong and ran tough in the middle of the race today. Patrick Wortmann is just a sophomore and did not run cross country in high school and had his best race of his career. Cameron Moes, a freshman is figuring things out and had a tremendous race today. Kohlton Gabehart continues to run well. Overall I was very pleased with our men’s team and how we raced today."
The men’s and women’s squads will have two weeks to prepare for the GPAC meet to be held at Doane College on Saturday, Nov. 7.
