November 16, 2013

Familiar Theme Surfaces At NCAA Regional Meet

The season-ending NCAA Regional Meet at St. Olaf turned out to be one last act of a familiar theme for Concordia in 2013.

NORTHFIELD, Minn. (11/16/13)— In a meet that served as a microcosm for the 2013, Concordia finished 17th at the season-ending NCAA Central Region Championship. The Cobbers were once again led by senior Ryan Sederquist but the results of the meet were determined by the team's strong freshmen class.

Sederquist shook off a trying week of training by finishing 55^th in a time of 26:36. His time is a full minute faster than the 27:48 he recorded at last year's regional meet.

After Sederquist it was a pack of freshmen and junior Henry Dobbs. That statement has been echoed throughout the entire 2013 season for the Cobbers. The other theme that has held up throughout the year is the team's No.2 runner – Matthew Lillehaugen. Lillehaugen started his first regional race on a conservative note but then raced through the middle part of the course and finished with a 27:36 which put him just inside the top 100 individuals.

Ethan Spittle has steadily closed the gap on Lillehaugen and was only 15.90 seconds behind his fellow freshman. Spittle's improvement since the Roy Griak Invite in late September has been dramatic. He dropped over two minutes off his 8k time since the Griak had a breakout race at MIAC two weeks ago where he improved 26 seconds. He then shaved off another 34 seconds at regional meet to move up to the team's No.3 runner.

Dobbs slid into the No.4 spot on the team – a role he has been locked in to throughout the season. He ran a 27:58 at the regional after posting a 28:16 at the MIAC Championship Meet two weeks earlier. Dobbs' finishing time on Saturday is almost 30 seconds faster than his time at the same meet last year.

A pair of first-year runners rounded out the top 6 for Concordia. Carl Wahlin completed the course in a time of 28:21 and Tyler Pederson came home in 28:52 to claim the No.6 spot on the team. Both runners were competing in their first postseason meet.

The Cobbers' 17^th-place finish is the best at the NCAA Regional Meet since 2005. That trend should continue in the upcoming years as the first-year athletes continue to gain collegiate seasoning.