First And Last Individual Wins At Opener

MOORHEAD, Minn. (10/22/15)—Concordia won the first two events of their season-opening dual meet with Northern State but wound up falling 122-82 to the Wolves in the earliest dual-meet competition in program history. 

The Cobbers started the year by winning 200-yard medley relay and then junior Annie Herkenhoff won the 1000-yard freestyle to put CC up 25-10. Concordia's only other event win would come in the final individual race of the meet but between the first and last individual events the Cobbers would post five second-place finishes.

The Cobber 200-yard medley relay team of Madeline Johnson, Ciara White, Sarah Nelson and Alaina Dehnke kicked off the 2015-16 season by posting a time of 1:59.30 and winning the race by .30 of a second. That time is over three seconds faster than CC's finishing time at the same meet last year at Northern State.

Herkenhoff then recorded the first individual event win of the year by racing to an 11:49.92 in the 1000-yard freestyle. Her winning time was 21.26 faster than the second-place finisher.

Herkenhoff also finished second in the 500-yard freestyle with a mark of 5:47.09 as she appears to be the No.1 Cobber distance swimmer in the early part of the season.

White recorded the other event in for Concordia. She claimed the victory in the 100-yard breaststroke by touching the wall in 1:11.62.

Nelson, Dehnke and Madeline Johnson posted the second-place finishes for the Cobbers. Nelson had a pair of second-place finishes at the meet. She was second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.94 and was runner-up in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:04.09. Her time in the 100-yard butterfly was faster than her first time in the same event last season.

Dehnke was second in the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 59.08 while Johnson claimed her second-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke. Johnson came home in 1:04.77 which is almost three seconds faster than she swam at the same meet last year.

Lily Johnson, Joleen Plekkenpol, Ann Marie O'Connell, Libby Hardwick and Julie Bushard all had top 3 finishes for Concordia at the season opener.          

Concordia will have a two-week break before returning to competition when they host MSU Moorhead on Friday, Nov. 6 at 6:30 p.m.