NCAA Central Region Recap
Concordia improved by two spots from last year's NCAA Central Region Meet and were led by Kara Andersen and Brianna Gruenberg.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. (11/11/17)---Concordia finished off its season by finishing 16th at the NCAA Central Region Meet held at Carleton.
The Cobbers had their Top 2 runners break the 24-minute mark on the 6k course as they improved by two places on their region finish from a year ago.
Kara Andersen and Brianna Gruenberg finished within 1.5 seconds of one another as they were the only two Concordia runners to complete the course in under 24 minutes.
Andersen led the Cobbers with a time of 23:38.1 and placed 55th among the 215 competitors. Her Top 60 finish is a huge improvement over her place at last year's region meet. Andersen finished in 114th place as a freshman and was the team's No.3 runner.
Gruenberg was with Andersen for the entire race and crossed the line just behind her teammate to post a finish time of 23:39.6. Her time was good for 58th place. She has now finished in the Top 60 at the central region meet in each of her three collegiate seasons.
Concordia's final three team scoring runners all finished within 26 seconds and 20 places of one another.
Maria West, Sara Whiteman and Erica Hauf stayed together throughout most of the race and were the team's No.3,4 and 5 finishers at the meet.
West led the trio with a time of 24:36 and was the No.101 finisher of the meets which put her in the top half of finishers. Whiteman was 2 seconds behind West with a mark of 24:38 and placed 103rd. Hauf crossed the finish line in a time of 25:02.
COBBER NCAA CENTRAL REGION FINISHERS:
55. Kara Andersen - 23:38.1
58. Brianna Gruenberg - 23:39.6
101. Maria West - 24:36.9
103. Sara Whiteman - 24:38.1
121. Erica Hauf - 25:02.4
142. Sarah Curran - 25:39.2
161. Tarja Nelsen - 26:08.3