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Head Coach: Matt Beisel (9th year); 12x GPAC Coach of the Year
2024 Indoor Finishes: 3rd (GPAC); 8th (NAIA)
2024 Outdoor Finishes: 3rd (GPAC); 7th (NAIA)
Past All-Americans returning (indoor/outdoor): Mayson Ostermeyer (1); Austen Rozelle (1).
2024 All-Americans lost (indoor/outdoor): Calvin Rohde (1); Darien Semedo (2); Chris Wren (5; HT national champion); Zach Zohner (4; 2x national champion).
2024 National Qualifiers returning (indoor/outdoor): Connor Asche; Matthew Boyer; Liam Fagan; Carson Fehlhafer; Luke Hammang; Trevor Kuncl; Mayson Ostermeyer; Trey Robertson; Austen Rozelle; Colby Sugden.
--NOTE: list of national qualifiers includes athletes who traveled to the 2024 NAIA indoor/outdoor meets.
WOMEN
Head Coach: Matt Beisel (9th year); 12x GPAC Coach of the Year
2024 Indoor Finishes: 1st (GPAC); 3rd (NAIA)
2024 Outdoor Finishes: 1st (GPAC); 20th (NAIA)
Past All-Americans returning (indoor/outdoor): Abigail Gerber (2); Kayla Kirchner (2); Josi Noble (1); Isabelle Salters (1); Gretchen Stottlemyre (1); Trinity Tuls (4); Zoey Walker (1); Abi Wohlgemuth (1).
2024 All-Americans lost (indoor/outdoor): Jenna Esch (8); Kylahn Freiberg (7); Rylee Haecker (10); Jordan Koepke (8); Julie McIntyre (1); Josie Puelz (8; 5x national champion).
2024 National Qualifiers returning (indoor/outdoor): Claire Beikmann; Erin Boggs; Abigail Gerber; Rhaya Kaschinske; Kayla Kirchner; Hayley Miles; Josi Noble; Adrianna Rodencal; Isabelle Salters; Cambria Saunders; Gretchen Stottlemyre; Kayla Svoboda; Trinity Tuls; Zoey Walker; Abi Wohlgemuth.
--NOTE: list of national qualifiers includes athletes who traveled to the 2024 NAIA indoor/outdoor meets.
Outlook
The 2024-25 indoor track & field season will officially arrive in the middle of December at Concordia University, Nebraska. Head Coach Matt Beisel enters his ninth season leading men’s and women’s programs that both experienced their share of mountaintop moments in 2024. National champions emerged in the form of the women’s 4x800-meter relay (indoor), Chris Wren in the hammer throw and Zach Zohner in the pole vault (indoor and outdoor). From a team perspective, the women continued their string of GPAC championships and the men placed top 10 nationally for both indoor and outdoor.
Both the men’s and women’s teams have undergone a degree of roster turnover with many legendary performers having graduated and moved on. This is where the acumen and expertise of Beisel and his staff comes in. Cohesion continues on the staff thanks to the presence of longtime assistants Ed McLaughlin, Mark Samuels and Jason Berry, who are joined by graduate assistants Lia Guigui and Darien Semedo and racewalk coach Steve Hoger.
Beisel likes what he has seen during the fall semester in terms of the building of team chemistry. Said the 12-time GPAC Coach of the Year, “I think we all agree as a staff that the group of freshmen we brought in, combined with the returners, is probably the most fired-up team environment I can remember having. We did a lot of team building stuff through the fall so that the distance runners, the throwers, the jumpers, the sprinters and everybody were able to connect together. We did a lot of fun stuff. I got a lot of feedback from athletes in every event group saying they really felt connected. I think that lays the groundwork and lets them know they have teammates they’re doing this for. There are a lot of moving pieces with a lot of different events and more than 160 kids on the team. I do feel like we are poised for a really good start when we have our Early Bird Meet.”
Indeed, the Early Bird Meet slated for Dec. 13-14 inside the Walz Fieldhouse will kick off a new indoor track season. While there are difficult-to-replace departures, the Bulldogs bring back 10 national qualifiers on the men’s side and 15 national qualifiers on the women’s side. Entering the year, the combined men’s and women’s roster features 26 seniors, 40 juniors, 55 sophomores and 39 freshmen. Through the fall, the freshman class has been earning rave reviews. There’s plenty enough talent on board to keep expectations at a high level.
On the men’s side, Wren and Zohner said their goodbyes after concluding their Concordia careers with fairytale finishes at the outdoor national meet. The program also graduated All-Americans in distance extraordinaire Calvin Rohde and thrower Darien Semedo. That leaves pole vaulter Mayson Ostermeyer and thrower Austen Rozelle as the lone remaining men’s athletes with past All-America medals to their credit.
Despite, the losses of Semedo and Wren, the throws group is a deep one that includes national qualifiers in Connor Asche, Matthew Boyer (javelin school record holder) and Carson Fehlhafer (also a first team all-conference defensive lineman on the football team). Other returning national qualifiers on the men’s roster include Liam Fagan (sprints), Luke Hammang (racewalk), Trevor Kuncl (distance), Trey Robertson (distance) and Colby Sugden (sprints).
A junior from Crofton, Neb., Ostermeyer takes the baton from Zohner while helping continue the program’s strong tradition in the pole vault. Ostermeyer emerged as the 2024 GPAC pole vault runner up to Zohner for indoor and outdoor and earned a fifth-place NAIA All-America finish at the 2024 indoor national meet. Ostermeyer leads a men’s vault crew that includes the likes of Micah Heins, Evan Hill, Jax Jacobson and Mike Johnson.
Said Ostermeyer, “At times it can be a little bit of pressure because when you go to a meet, you’re like, ‘I should probably do well.’ It’s nice to know that we have a really high reputation in the pole vault. If I do well, it’s adding more to that. We have a transfer from Hastings and she said, ‘Whenever Concordia pulls up to a meet, it’s like an ‘oh no moment.’ They kind of know this is going to be tough. It’s really cool to have that aura around us.”
Beisel already has an idea of what to expect from the distance crew. Vaughn Hendrickson knocked it out of the park during his freshman cross country season as he won the GPAC title and earned All-America honors. Robertson placed as the conference runner up to Hendrickson. Beisel believes both Hendrickson and Robertson could break the school 5k record. Elsewhere on the track, Fagan (400 meters), Kuncl (mile) and Sugden (400 meters) are returning scorers from the 2024 GPAC indoor meet. One freshman to watch is Easton Fries, who broke the Nebraska state meet record in the 300-meter hurdles and was a 10-time state medalist.
The depth of the men’s roster continues into field events. Jacobson joined Ostermeyer with 2024 indoor all-conference honors in the pole vault. In the jumps, Myles Sadd and Aaron Spivey were all-conference performers at the 2024 GPAC outdoor meet.
“Our guys have been building momentum for years,” Beisel said. “We got second (in the GPAC) once in the last five years, but we’ve consistently been coming in third place against really good teams. We go to nationals and we beat some of the teams that beat us at conference. We want to do both. Our main goal is to glorify Christ in all that we say and do as a team. Another one of our goals from a performance standpoint is to win conference for both men and women and place top 10 – and ideally top four and get a trophy – at nationals. To have our guys get eighth at indoor nationals and seventh at outdoor nationals (in 2024) was a big thing.”
On the women’s side, the streak of consecutive GPAC championships has reached 11 after Concordia narrowly held off Doane, 209.5 to 204.5 in team scoring, at the 2024 GPAC outdoor meet. A new group of athletes will have an opportunity to grab more of the spotlight as five individuals who combined for 41 All-America awards have graduated or used up their eligibility: Jenna Esch, Kylahn Freiberg, Rylee Haecker, Jordan Koepke and Josie Puelz (a five-time pole vault national champion).
While those losses will be felt immensely, the Bulldogs do welcome back eight past All-Americans in Abigail Gerber (throws), Kayla Kirchner (sprints), Josi Noble (jumps/multi-events), Isabelle Salters (sprints/hurdles), Gretchen Stottlemyre (javelin), Trinity Tuls (sprints), Zoey Walker (jumps) and Abi Wohlgemuth (throws). The star power continues with school record hurdler Adrianna Rodencal, the 2023 GPAC Female Indoor and Outdoor Athlete of the Year.
The Lincoln Lutheran High School alum Rodencal came up agonizingly short of All-America awards in 2024 while taking another step forward during her sophomore campaign. Her school record times now sit at 8.55 in the 60 hurdles and 13.65 in the 100 hurdles. Rodencal will be looked upon as a leader both on and off the track.
Said Rodencal, “We’re losing quite a few people from last year. We definitely took a hit, but seeing girls we’ve recruited and seeing girls step up in events like the 4x4 make me excited to watch that this year. We have a really good support group so that when we do lose those big key players, we have people who can step up. We’re grateful that we have such an amazing program, coaches and recruiting that we can do that … It makes me really excited to see what’s going to happen in this first meet and see who is going to go out on that track and show themselves.”
All parts of the 4x8 that claimed the 2024 indoor national championship have departed. However, the nucleus for a strong 4x4 remains in place thanks to the return of the likes of All-Americans in Kirchner, Salters and Tuls. Noble and Rodencal are also capable of stepping into relay positions. In other track events, the Bulldogs are looking for big things from cross country national qualifier Keegan Beisel and other past all-conference honorees such as Hannah Beintema, Cambria Saunders and Kayla Svoboda. The latter came on strong last season in the hurdles. Among freshmen, Adysen McCarter is making waves after a successful run at Overton High School and the distance crew is bolstered by a slew of freshmen such as Annika Staab and Annaka Schlachter.
Gerber, Stottlemyre and Wohlgemuth are some of the standouts in the women’s throws crew. This past indoor season, Gerber placed fifth at nationals in the shot put and Wohlgemuth took sixth in the weight throw. Stottlemyre went on to become a javelin All-American at the NAIA outdoor meet. Under McLaughlin’s watchful eye, it’s likely that additional national qualifiers will develop from this crew.
In the pole vault, there’s no way to replace a five-time national champion like Puelz. Erin Boggs and Svoboda are past NAIA national qualifiers in the event. In the jumps, Walker experienced a breakthrough when she placed eighth in the high jump at the ‘24 indoor national meet. Other returning jumpers who were All-GPAC honorees last indoor season were Jaelynne Kosmos, Hayley Miles, Kiki Nyanok and Amanda Steinke. Noble and Walker were indoor national qualifiers last season in the pentathlon. Concordia has routinely excelled in the multi-events on the women’s side.
In aspiring to keep their perch atop the GPAC, the Bulldogs know they have no margin for error with Doane and others breathing down their necks. For ultra-competitive athletes like Rodencal, winning the GPAC is always going to be the expectation.
“We are going to need some people to step up,” Beisel said. “Everyone is developing. I think we have enjoyed, and have not taken for granted, the 11-consecutive conference titles on the women’s side. We almost got gotten by Doane. They’ve really been building their program and got some good kids in there. It is not a certain thing that we’re going to walk in and win the conference title in indoor. It’s very possible they could beat us. We’re going to do everything in our power to keep that from happening. We lose some key women who have been All-Americans and GPAC champions. Those are some legendary athletes who have left a huge legacy at Concordia. But we return a whole bunch of great people in all the event areas. Then you throw in another group of really talented freshmen.”
The tentative meet schedule for the Bulldog Early Bird can be found HERE. That meet will open a season that will make a stop in Mitchell, S.D., for the 2024 GPAC Indoor Championships and will continue for national qualifiers with the 2024 NAIA Indoor National Championships (Feb. 27 – March 1) in Gainesville, Fla., a new destination after the indoor national meet was staged in Brookings, S.D., in five of the past six years. The full 2024-25 Concordia Track & Field schedule can be viewed HERE.
Added Beisel, “I’m cautiously optimistic. We’re going to have to stay healthy, and we’re going to know a lot more after Early Bird about what the men and women are going to shape up like. It will be a lot of fun to see. Ultimately, it’s a God thing as to whether we can keep them all healthy and help them to develop as people and individuals.”