Middle Distance/Distance Shine At SJU
The Concordia middle distance/distance crew posted all four event wins for Concordia at the St. John's Invite and helped the Cobbers finish in second place in the team standings.
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (2/16/20)---Concordia claimed four individual event wins on its way to posting a second-place finish at the 5-team St. John's Invitational in Collegeville.
All four of the Cobber wins came in track events at the second-to-last meet before the MIAC Indoor Championship Meet on Feb. 28-29 at St. John's.
Not only did all four wins come from track athletes but all four came from the middle distance/distance crew.
Dan Wilson earned the team 10 points for his win in the 600 meters where he crossed the finish line in a time of 1:24.69. That mark was 1.65 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher and just off his season-best time which is No.10 in the MIAC this year.
Jesse Middendorf bridged the gap between middle distance and distance on the win list by claiming first place in the 1000 meters. Middendorf continues to excel in his sophomore season despite battling a sickness bug. Middendorf raced to a season-best time of 2:35.21 which is ninth fastest in the MIAC.
Teammate Munir Isahak might have ran the race of the meet as he climbed into the Top 10 in the conference in the first 1000 meters of the season. He used Middendorf to pace the race and crossed the line in a time of 2:35.21 which is No.10 in the MIAC this year.
Senior Olsen Pancoast is having the best season of his career and continues to post Top 5 results at meets. On Saturday he earned his first event win in a multi-athlete field. Pancoast bettered his season-best time in the mile by almost a full seven seconds an won the event in 4:43.63.
Eric Wicklund finished off the quartet of victories in the longest race of the meet. He clocked a 15:47.83 in the 5000 meters and won the race by 4.91 seconds. Wicklund has now won an event in three of the four meets this season.
Sophomore Michael Kraimer and Noah Kneeskern had third-place finishes in events won by fellow Cobbers and both athletes recorded season-best times. Krainer was third in the mile at 4:45.86 and Kneeskern was third in the 5000 meters at 15:55.47.
The Cobber 4x400 relay team of Middendorf, Hayden Gagnon, Colin Schuller and Cal Wright broke the meet record with a time of 3:26.64 which was almost 10 seconds in front the of the runner up. That quartet holds the second fastest time in the MIAC with a mark of 3:24.83 which occurred on Jan. 30 at UND.
Jake Steiner had a pair of Top 5 finishes in a deep field of throw athletes. He was third in the shot put with a distance of 49-00.25and was fifth in the weight throw at 51-01.00. Both marks are less than a foot off his season best distances. He currently stands fifth in the shot put and seventh in the weight throw in the conference this season.
Throw teammate Ben Schelske had Top 6 finishes in both events at SJU. He was fifth in the shot put at 43-11.75 and sixth in the weight throw at 48-02.50. The distance in the shot put is a season best and he is now 11th in both the throw implements.
Gagnon, Jayce Johnson and Matt Bye had the other Top 5 finishes in field events for CC. Gagnon was fifth in the high jump with a height of 6-00.00 while Johnson was fifth in the long jump with a season-best mark of 19-07.50 and Bye placed fourth in the pole vault with a pedestrian height of 12-05.50.
UP NEXT: Concordia will have one more chance to improve on their marks for seeding and qualification in the MIAC Championship Meet when they compete at the UND Indoor Tune-Up Meet on Saturday, Feb. 22.