Cobbers Have Nine Top 3 Finishers At St. John's Quad

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (2/16/13)—Senior distance runner Brad McConn won the 1000-meter race at the St. John's Quadrangular Meet on Saturday and helped the Cobbers finish in third place. McConn was one of nine top 3 individual finishers for Concordia on the day.

The Cobbers finished with a final total team score of 132.5 points which was only eight points behind second-place Gustavus. Host St. John's won the meet with a total of 177.0 points.

McConn's win in the 1000 meters came in a time of 2:36.66 and was almost two seconds faster than the next finisher. His time is the best by a Cobber athlete this year and places him in the top 11 of the conference.

The other event win of the afternoon came from the Concordia 4x400-meter relay team which clocked a 3:29.90 and bettered eight other teams in the event. Their finishing time is a season-best and marks the first sub 3:30 for a CC quartet. It is also only .18 of a second off the team's season-best time from last year.

McConn was one of five individual athletes who posted top 3 finishes in track events at the meet. John Bye came away with a runner-up finish in the 60-meter hurdles. He ran an 8.94 in the finals and narrowly missed out on first place. Bye also placed fourth in the 200 meters.

Bruce Shields, John Buckanaga and Ryan Sederquist all had third-place finishes. Shields ran a season-best 23.42 in the 200 meters. That is the fastest time for a CC runner this season and 14^th fastest in the MIAC. Buckanaga snagged his third-place finish in the 600 meters. He finished in a time 1:26.66. That time is almost three second better than his previous season best which came at the Cobber Open. Sederquist used his stamina to finish third in the 3000 meters with a final mark of 8:57.37. He becomes the first CC athlete to break the 9-minute barrier this season.

Freshman Gabe Wright and senior Simon Erlandson led the high flying Cobber high jump corps. Wright and Erlandson both cleared 6-02.00 but Wright was second due to misses at lower heights. The pair was just two of six CC athletes who finished in the top 11 of the event.

Brandon Zylstra continued his outstanding freshman season by placing second in the long jump. He recorded a distance of 21-08.00 on his second attempt. That mark is a season best by almost a full foot and is the fourth farthest jump in the conference this year.

It wouldn't be an indoor meet without a top 3 finish in the pole vault for a CC vaulter. This week it was junior Levi Bachmeier's turn to have a go at history. He cleared 14-08.25 and placed third in the event.

The Cobbers are now two weeks away from competing at the MIAC Indoor Meet. Concordia will stay south when they compete in the St. Olaf Open on Friday, Feb. 22.