The Road To Hosting Conference Has Begun

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (4/15/12)—The road to hosting the MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Meet Championship Meet has officially started. The Cobbers began the every-Saturday grind to the conference meet on Saturday and Sunday when they competed in the St. John's Dual meet as well as the SJU Decathlon. Concordia lost 144-49 to the Johnnies in the dual but had plenty of outstanding individual performances in the first of four meets before the MIAC championships.

Concordia had a pair of individuals and a relay team claim event wins at the meet. Field athletes Seth Lage and Mark Goss won the javelin and high jump and the quartet of Lage, John Bye, Ben Vickstrom and Bruce Shields won 4x100-meter relay race.

Lage opened his trek to the conference meet by posting a distance of 157-10 in the javelin. That won the event by a full three feet over teammate Connor Johnson. Junior Evan Eide gave CC a 1-2-3 finish in the vent as he posted a mark of 137-7. Goss picked up where he left off in the indoor season as he recorded a height of 6-04.25 in the high jump. He bested teammate Simon Erlandson who finished at 6-02.25. Goss' mark is the highest by a Cobber athlete since the 2000 season.

Concordia once again has a large crew of pole vault athletes. The Cobbers had seven vaulters compete at SJU and sophomore Levi Bachmeier led the herd by placing second with a mark of 13-01.50.

The winning 4x100-meter relay team nipped the Johnnie entrant in the race by a mere .09 of a second. Their finishing time of 43.73 is just .14 of a second behind last season's best time.

The sprint trio of Vickstrom, Shields and Cole Bardwell came away with the top track finishes. Vickstrom ran a 11.43 in the 100-meter dash and finished in second place. Shields was third in the 200 meters with a time of 23.05 and Bardwell was also third in the 400 meters at 51.90.

Brad Johnson was the lone Cobber entrant in the two-day SJU decathlon event. He finished fourth out of 12 athletes with a final total of 5,236 points. That is only 138 points off his best score in 2011. Johnson's best scoring event of the meet came in the very first event where he ran an 11.98 in the 100 meters and came away with 655 points.

Concordia will carry on towards the MIAC Meet when they participate in the UM-Morris Open on Apr. 21 beginning at 10 a.m.