YANKTON, S.D. – The rhythm of the day was broken up by a lengthy lightning delay, but freshman Erin Mapson made the most of it by capturing the first GPAC title of her career young career while representing Concordia University track and field. On the men’s side, junior Jacob Cornelio also came with a conference championship in the hammer throw on day one of the 2019 GPAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted in Yankton, S.D., by Mount Marty.
With day one in the books, head coach Matt Beisel’s squads sit in first place on the women’s side with 56.5 points (five events scored) and third place on the men’s side with 23 points (four events scored).
On paper, the women’s pole vault projected to be a fruitful event. With Mapson leading the way, the Bulldogs made a nice haul of 24.5 team points from their vaulters. In addition to Mapson placing first (12’ 1 ½”), McKenzie Gravo finished second, Jacee Pfeifer fifth, Allie Brooks seventh and Tristen Mosier eighth. Mapson becomes the third Concordia vaulter among the aforementioned group to claim a conference pole vault title.
Also a GPAC indoor champion in the weight throw, Cornelio collected the first GPAC outdoor championship of his career with his personal best hammer throw of 202’ 5,” which makes him the fourth athlete in program history to break 200 feet in the event.
The Bulldog women also added 17 points in the long jump via places finishes of second by Jessica Deterding, third by Claire Cornell and sixth by Jamey Broman. In addition, Deterding is in competition in the heptathlon this weekend. Deterding and Kennedy Mogul began the day with personal bests in the 100 meter hurdles. With four of seven events finished in the heptathlon, Deterding is in fourth place (2,727 points).
Concordia also had two additional runners up with Jazzy Eickhoff throwing 126’ 1” in the javelin and with the men’s 4x800 meter relay running an automatic national qualifying time of 7:38.73. That time actually came in under the previous GPAC meet record (7:39.31). The Bulldog men’s 4x8 featured Nathan Matters, Christian Van Cleave, Thomas Taylor and Josiah McAllister. They finished just behind Dordt (7:37.92) for first place.
The 10,000 meter races ran especially late due to the delay. Concordia’s Jordan Lorenz placed fourth (33:14.40) on the men’s side while Hannah Rebmann finished sixth (40:50.13) on the women’s side. The Bulldog women’s 4x800 meter relay placed fifth in a time of 9:24.90, which met the ‘B’ standard. The group included Miranda Rathjen, Rebekah Hinrichs, Tori Beran and Alyssa Fye.
Other events that were scheduled for Friday but did not have results reported were the men’s pole vault, women’s hammer throw and men’s long jump. Each of these events were pushed back a day due to weather related issues.
The meet will pick up on Saturday with multi events getting started at 9 a.m. CT. For additional meet information, including live results, click HERE.