SEWARD, Neb. – Concordia University Track & Field will get comfortable at its home Walz Fieldhouse for the third-straight meet to begin the 2023-24 indoor season. Athletes from 10 institutions are set to compete at this weekend's Concordia Classic (Jan. 26-27) that will feature strong NAIA competition along with NCAA Division III Nebraska Wesleyan University. Head Coach Matt Beisel’s program has already hosted the Bulldog Early Bird Meet (Dec. 8-9) and the Concordia Polar Dog Invite (Jan. 19). Through those first two meets, Bulldog athletes have combined for 20 automatic national qualifying standards.
UPDATE: The Concordia Track & Field men's and women's squads both appeared inside the top 10 of the this season's first edition of the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Rating Index, as calculated by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Bulldog women landed at No. 3 while men checked in at No. 7 in the national ratings released on Wednesday (Jan. 24). Those rankings can be found below.
--USTFCCCA NAIA National Ratings: Men | Women
Concordia Classic
Friday/Saturday (Jan. 26-27) | Walz Fieldhouse
--Meet Schedule (PDF) | Live Results
--Live Streams:
· Running Events (and Friday Women’s Pentathlon): https://www.youtube.com/c/BulldogTrackandField
· Men’s & Women’s High Jump (Men’s Heptathlon): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCnWh95Lz6dW3OUosomZyoA
· Women’s Jumps (north runway): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWMXJ0G97vIWXuBqGS3Iww
· Men’s & Women’s Throwing Events: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqn-dBHnX9YmlOunOX9cweA
· Men’s & Women’s Pole Vault: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIerIQe-tQv53fnpGwp_wTQ
· Men’s Jumps (infield jumping events): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIerIQe-tQv53fnpGwp_wTQ
Competing Institutions
Bellevue University
Benedictine College
College of Saint Mary
Concordia University
Doane University
Hastings College
Kansas Wesleyan University
MidAmerica Nazarene University
Nebraska Wesleyan University
York University
The complete list of Concordia’s automatic national qualifiers can be found below. Two new ‘A’ standards came at the Polar Dog Invite as Kylahn Freiberg blazed to a time of 17:48.25 in the 5,000 meters for a meet record that ranks No. 3 on the program’s all-time list. In addition, Freiberg ran the second leg for the women’s 4x800 meter relay that ran a time of 9:15.26 (converted to 9:08.93 on the national list) and qualified for nationals. The 4x8 group also included Jenna Esch, Julie McIntyre and Rylee Haecker. In another especially noteworthy performance, junior Zach Zohner cleared a personal best of 16’ 8 ¾” and won the Polar Dog pole vault title. Zohner currently ranks No. 2 nationally in the pole vault.
In addition to Zohner, the following Bulldogs own top five national marks: the women’s 4x800 meter relay (No. 1), Abi Wohlgemuth (No. 3 in the weight throw), Chris Wren (No. 3 in the weight throw), Esch (No. 4 in the 600 meters), Haecker (No. 4 in the 1,000 meters), Hayley Miles (No. 4 in the long jump) and the women’s 4x400 meter relay (No. 5). New ‘B’ standards came last week from Calvin Rohde in the mile and Darien Semedo in the shot put. Concordia came away with 14 Polar Dog event championships.
The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association is scheduled to release its first NAIA team national rankings of the 2023-24 indoor season this coming Wednesday (Jan. 24). Be sure to check the USTFCCCA website later this week for those rankings, which are calculated using the individual national performance lists.
Automatic National Qualifiers
· Women’s 4x400m Relay (3:57.82) – Esch, Kirchner, Tuls, Koepke
· Women’s 4x800m Relay (9:08.93) – Esch, Freiberg, McIntyre, Haecker
· Amira Cummings – Pole Vault (11’ 8 ½”)
· Jenna Esch – 400 Meters (57.64); 600 Meters (1:36.35)
· Kylahn Freiberg – 5,000 Meters (17:40.14)
· Abigail Gerber – Weight Throw (53’ 10 ½”); Shot Put (45’ 9”)
· Rylee Haecker – 1,000 Meters (3:01.00)
· Jordan Koepke – 600 Meters (1:36.73)
· Hayley Miles – Long Jump (19’ 4 ¼”)
· Kamryn Pokorney – Weight Throw (53’ 7 ¾”)
· Josie Puelz – Pole Vault (11’ 8 ½”)
· Joel Rathe – Long Jump (23’ 6 ¾”)
· Sydney Reichert – Pole Vault (11’ 8 ½”)
· Adrianna Rodencal – 60 Hurdles (8.57)
· Chris Wren – Weight throw (64’ 5”)
· Zoey Walker – High Jump (5’ 6”)
· Abi Wohlgemuth – Weight Throw (58’ 10 ¼”)
· Zach Zohner – Pole Vault (16’ 8 ¾”)
The all-time Concordia Track & Field performance lists are updated periodically and are available to the public HERE. Current Bulldogs who own school indoor records are Hayley Miles (long jump), Josie Puelz (pole vault), Amy Richert (pentathlon) and Adrianna Rodencal (60 hurdles).
Concordia will venture out of town next weekend for the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational (Feb. 2-3) and the Fred Beile Classic (Feb. 3) hosted by Doane. The final Bulldog home meet of the indoor season is slated for Feb. 9 when the Concordia Indoor Invite will take place. That meet will lead into the GPAC Indoor Track & Field Championships on Feb. 16-17.