USTFCCCA NAIA Track & Field Ratings
SEWARD, Neb. – The 2019 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships are still roughly six weeks away, but the Concordia University women’s squad is showing strong indications that it can be a heavy hitter on the national stage. In the NAIA ratings released on Wednesday (April 10) by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), the Bulldog women checked in at No. 2. Meanwhile, the men were rated 31st, a big jump from 57th the previous week.
Head coach Matt Beisel’s squads are coming off NAIA indoor national finishes of ninth for both men and women. The outdoor national championships are set to take place May 23-25 at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium in Gulf Shores, Ala.
From the USTFCCCA release:
Concordia (Neb.) moved up to No. 2, its best ranking of the season. It was a huge weekend for the Bulldogs in field events, as they now have eight efforts ranked in the top-6 nationally. Four of those are in the top-3 with Adrianna Shaw highly ranked in the discus (second) and hammer (first), McKenzie Gravo listed second in the pole vault and Samantha Liermann billed third in the shot put.
Based on how things stand now, 11 Bulldogs have already guaranteed their spots at the national meet. In particular, Concordia’s women have cleaned up in the field events. As mentioned by the USTFCCCA, Shaw ranks among the NAIA’s best in multiple events. Her big personal best last week in the hammer throw led to her being named the NAIA National Field Athlete of the Week. Shaw is the reigning discus national champion. Coach Ed McLaughlin has overseen 14 individual throwing national titles since the start of the 2014 seasons.
The Bulldogs have also gotten a boost from the additions this outdoor season of members of the national champion women’s basketball team. The headliners among them are freshmen Claire Cornell and Mackenzie Koepke, both of whom were state champions as Nebraska preps. Both young up-and-comers qualified for nationals at last week’s Concordia Invite. Cornell won the long jump with a mark of 18’ 10 ¾” (third best in school history) while Koepke placed second in the high jump by clearing 5’ 5 ¾” (second best in school history). Koepke is not far off the school record of 5’ 6.”
On the men’s side, junior Jacob Cornelio is especially noteworthy with his hammer throw mark of 195’ that sits No. 4 on the NAIA national list. Other Bulldog men qualified for nationals are Evan Asche (marathon) and Ryan Sanchez (hammer throw). Concordia has many others capable of putting up national qualifying marks as the outdoor season progresses. The Bulldogs have not yet had a meet with multi events.
The outdoor season has been historically good to Concordia track and field. The program captured back-to-back national titles in recent years with the men claiming the school’s first-ever team national championship, in any sport, in 2015. The women then did the same in 2016 (men were runners up). The most recent outdoor GPAC titles for Concordia were 2015 on the men’s side and 2012 on the women’s side.
The Bulldogs will be headed to Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday for the Grand View University Quad. The first action is set to get started at 11 a.m. CT.