Plethora Of Lifetime Best Marks At Masanz

Recap courtesy of Cobber head coach Garrick Larson

A plethora of Cobbers dropped times and improved marks at the Minnesota State-Moorhead Masanz Invitational on Saturday as the clouds succumbed to sunny skies mid-day.  As the Cobbers approached the MIAC Championship next week, many of the athletes were in full-taper and recorded lifetime best marks.  The relays led the way for the day, with a 2nd place finish in the 4x100 meter relays (43.13) and 3rd place finish in the 4x400 meter relays (3:22.06), both teams moving up the MIAC rankings into the top 5.
 
Dustin Britten continued his strong season with a 22.40 in the 200 meters to finish 8th, the #2 all-time at Concordia and just 0.11 seconds from the school record.  Both Britten and Bruce Shields (22.46 last week) are among the top 10 in the MIAC going into the MIAC Championship.  Britten also finished 5th in the 110 meter high hurdles (15.68).

John Bye was key on the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays for the day but also ran a career best 400 meter hurdle race in 55.02 to finish 4th and move to #3 in the MIAC.  Also on the track, Brad McConn became the 11th Cobber to crack the 4:00 barrier in the 1500 meter with a time of 3:59.32 finishing 5th.  Concordia also had four runners crack 2:00 in the 800 meters, John Buckanaga (1:57.12), Scott Anderson (1:58.15), Erik Steuck (1:58.65) and Luke Lagergren (1:59.17) all finishing in the top 10, making 6 Cobbers sub-2:00 this season.

Ron Masanz Invite Highlights
110HH - Dustin Britten - 5th - 15.68 (2nd best mark of year)
200 - Dustin Britten - 8th - 22.40 (#2 all-time at Concordia surpassing Bruce Shields 22.42 set last week at the Cobber Twilight, #5 in MIAC)
400 - Alex Benzegala - 5th - 50.62 (#15 all-time at Concordia, #15 in MIAC)
400H - John Bye - 4th - 55.02 (#10 all-time at Concordia, #3 in MIAC)
800 - John Buckanaga - 3rd - 1:57.12 (#15 all-time at Concordia)
800 - Scott Anderson - 6th - 1:58.15 (best time since one year ago)
800 - Erik Steuck - 7th - 1:58.65 (lifetime best)
800 - Luke Lagergren - 9th - 1:59.17 (lifetime best, first time under 2:00, 6th Cobber sub-2:00 this year)
1500 - Brad McConn - 5th - 3:59.32 (#6 in MIAC, first sub-4:00 of career, #10 all-time, 11th Cobber sub-4:00)
4x1 - 3rd - 43.13 (Seth Lage, John Bye, Bruce Shields, Dustin Britten; #6 all-time at Concordia, #4 in MIAC)
4x4 - 2nd - 3:22.06 (Alex Benzegala, Logan Carlson, John Buckanaga, John bye; #13 all-time and big time drop (5 ½ seconds), #4 in MIAC)
HJ - Mark Goss - 3rd - 6-4 3/4 (best outdoor mark of season, #4 in MIAC, #16 all-time CC)
HJ - Simon Erlandson - 7th - 6-2 ¾ (#7 in MIAC)
JV - Connor Johnson - 4th - 175-10 (#1 in MIAC; #12 all-time CC, CC has 4 of top 10 in MIAC)

Other
200 - Alex Benzegala - 13th - 23.00 (technically 22.998 seconds…#20 all-time and lifetime PR)
400H - Ger Schmidt - 9th - 58.21 (#15 in MIAC and lifetime best)
1500 - Jake Stunek - 11st - 4:11.83 (lifetime best)
5k - David Ohmann - 8th - 16:27.83 (lifetime best as Senior in likely last race)