SEWARD, Neb. – It will be an eventful week as the 2024 GPAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships loom in the background. The Concordia University Track & Field program will be represented at three different upcoming meets: the Nebraska Wesleyan Invite (April 25), the Drake Relays (April 25-27) and the Rock Chalk Classic (April 27). Dating back to late March, Head Coach Matt Beisel’s squads have competed in four full-scale weekends of action this 2024 outdoor season.
Upcoming Meets:
NWU Prairie Wolf Invitational - MEET CANCELED
Thursday (April 25) | Abel Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
--Live Results | Live Webcast
Drake Relays
Thursday-Saturday (April 25-27) | Drake Stadium (Des Moines, Iowa)
--Drake Relays homepage | Live Results
Rock Chalk Classic
Saturday (April 27) | Rock Chalk Park (Lawrence, Kan.)
--Meet Schedule | Live Results
Bulldog entries at the 2024 Drake Relays:
· Women’s CD 4x800m Relay (4:30 p.m. Thursday) – Jenna Esch, Rylee Haecker, Rhaya Kaschinske, Kylahn Freiberg
· Women’s CD 4x100m Relay (9:18 a.m. Friday)–Cambria Saunders, Kayla Kirchner, Kellie Rhodes, Adrianna Rodencal
· Women’s UD/CD 100m Hurdles (12:20 p.m. Friday) – Adrianna Rodencal
· Women’s UD/CD 400m Hurdles (2:08 p.m. Friday)– Jordan Koepke
· Women’s CD 4x400m Relay (3:11 p.m. Friday) – Jenna Esch, Kayla Kirchner, Trinity Tuls, Jordan Koepke
· Women’s UD/CD 4x200m Relay (7:34 p.m. Friday) – Jenna Esch, Kayla Kirchner, Jordan Koepke, Adrianna Rodencal
· Women’s CD DMR (9:10 a.m. Saturday) – Rylee Haecker, Isabelle Salters, Rhaya Kaschinske, Kylahn Freiberg
The Bulldogs hope to add to their list of automatic national qualifiers while going up against top notch competition at the annual Drake Relays, which play out on the blue oval inside Drake Stadium. Concordia has five women’s relays that were accepted into the meet. That list includes the women’s 4x800 meter relay, which won the NAIA national championship this past indoor season. In addition, Adrianna Rodencal and Jordan Koepke are scheduled to compete individually in hurdles events. The Drake Relays are known for hosting some of the top track and field athletes nationally and worldwide.
Last week:
Concordia is coming off an appearance at the Jim Dutcher Memorial Classic (April 18-20) hosted by Doane. The Bulldogs came away with 11 event titles, including one from Matthew Boyer in the javelin. Boyer broke the school record in the event with a toss of 219’ 1,” moving him up to No. 5 on the current NAIA national list. The previous school standard was 205’ 5” by Kevin Baker in 1986. Boyer was one of four Bulldogs who improved upon existing automatic national qualifying standards at the Dutcher Classic. The others were Jenna Esch in the 400 meters (55.80), Abby Gerber in the shot put (47’ 8”) and Darien Semedo in the shot put (53’ 11 ¾”).
In addition, Amy Richert (4,600 points) and Josi Noble (4,534 points) posted heptathlon point totals that rank them inside the top 10 nationally – seventh and eighth, respectively – while in action in Crete. In the 1,500 meters, Kylahn Freiberg came up a hair short of the ‘A’ standard while winning the event in 4:36.15 at the Dutcher Classic. Other not previously mentioned event titlists from the weekend were Hannah Beintema (3,000m steeplechase), Esch (800 meters), Gerber (shot put), Jordan Koepke (400m hurdles), Kiki Nyanok (long jump), Calvin Rohde (5,000 meters), Isabelle Salters (100m hurdles) and Semedo (shot put).
Bulldogs with NAIA automatic national qualifying standards
· Women’s 4x400m Relay (3:53.96)
· Matthew Boyer – Javelin (219’ 1”)
· Jenna Esch – 400 Meters (55.80)
· Carson Fehlhafer – Shot Put (53’ 3 ¾”)
· Abby Gerber – Shot Put (47’ 8”)
· Jordan Koepke – 400 Hurdles (1:01.93)
· Adrianna Rodencal – 100 Hurdles (13.84)
· Darien Semedo – Shot Put (53’ 11 ¾”); Hammer Throw (185’ 2”)
· Zoey Walker – High Jump (5’ 6”)
· Chris Wren – Hammer Throw (198’ 6”)
· Zach Zohner – Pole Vault (17’)
In addition to the above marks, Amy Richert and Josi Noble currently rank seventh and eighth, respectively, on the NAIA national list in the heptathlon. The top 16 in that event become automatic qualifiers once all meets prior to the national championships have concluded.
2024 GPAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Northwestern will host the 2024 GPAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships at De Valois Stadium in Orange City, Iowa, May 3-4. The schedule of events can be found HERE.