Track & Field

Women's Track team takes conference title

Feb. 27, 2010 – The Concordia–Chicago track and field team has demonstrated throughout the 2010 indoor season that their program is on the rise. The Feb. 27 Northern Athletics Conference Indoor Championships in Kenosha, Wisc., offered the greatest example of the progress that has taken place under third-year head coach Matt Beisel.

The Cougar women rose from seventh place in last year’s meet to claim the championship, defeating Concordia University Wisconsin and Aurora University in close competition decided by a few points.

The biggest explanation for the Cougars’ achievement was the added depth in several areas due to a large recruiting class. Concordia’s women took first place in just one event—the 4 x 400-meter relay in the final event of the day—and they scored several seconds and thirds and also managed multiple-point scorers in several events.

“I knew going into the meet that our ladies had a chance to win it, but I also knew that we faced tough competition,” Beisel said. “Both our teams set goals in November to place top three at the indoor championships. I felt that both had an opportunity to achieve this, although I knew it was going to be tougher for the guys.

“Leading up to the meet, I encouraged our men and women to relax, do what they’ve been trained to do, and to always remember that we do track because we love it. I also spent a lot of time in prayer and devotion. I asked simply that whatever happened, our athletes and coaches would use this meet as an opportunity to glorify Christ in our actions and words and that we would kept safe from serious injury and illness.”

The women gradually increased the team totals throughout the day. Once they reached the 4 x 400, the Cougars were sitting four points behind Concordia Wisconsin and two behind Aurora. The event was run in two heats, and Concordia’s foursome of Cheyenne Martinez-Trevino (Santa Maria, Calif./Righetti), Beth Munkwitz (Franklin, Wis./Martin Luther), Cassie Irwin (Shelby Township, Mich./Lutheran Northwest) and Emily Ramey (Glendale, Ariz./Ironwood) ran an outstanding race in 4:25.15. They beat the Wisconsin Lutheran and Benedictine teams while also obliterating the school record of 4:40.14 set in 2002.

The team then watched and waited through the second heat that included the two leading teams., Edgewood College won the heat with a time of 4:26.08, finishing ahead of Aurora, Concordia Wisconsin and Milwaukee Engineering but behind Concordia Chicago by one second.

The 10 points for the Cougars’ first-place finish, combined with Aurora’s fourth (5 points) and Concordia Wisconsin’s fifth (4 points) were enough to put the Cougars over the top with 115.5 points past Concordia Wisconsin’s 113.5 and Aurora’s 112.5.

“As we got down to the final events, our men and women went nuts cheering Alex Schmidt (Frankenmuth, Mich./H.S.). She needed to score points in the 3,000-meter run despite that she ran four miles in races already. Also our 4 x 400 relay team who had to run, almost by themselves against the clock, needed to score.

“Without the energy and support from both our men and women, it’s arguable that we would have come up short. Since August, we have spent one hour a week as participating team-building activities outside of practice, and this is where it clearly paid off.”

Ramey ran the final leg of the 4 x 400. Ramey’s contributions were such that she earned the Women’s Freshman Athlete of the Meet. She added 26.5 points to the team’s score, including a second in the 55-meter dash (7.73 seconds), third in the long jump (15’ 8 ¼”), fourth in the 55-meter hurdles (9.79) and fourth in the 200-meter dash (28.10).

All areas—runs, jumps and throws—contributed to the women’s victory. Freshman Schmidt showed her dedication by totaling six miles of racing over three events and placing in three events. She ran to a fourth place finish in the 3,000 meters (11:34.71), a sixth in the 5,000 meters (20:36.70) and a seventh in the mile run (5:53.28).

Martinez-Trevino scored in the 400 meters (1:02.81, second place) and the 800 meters (2:34.15, fourth place), and beat her own school record in the 400 by 1/100th of a second. Munkwitz also scored in the 800 (2:42.43, seventh).

The Cougar women had three scorers in the 55-meter dash, including Ramey in second, Bree Smith (Downers Grove, Ill./South) in fifth (7.91) and Irwin in seventh (7.96). Irwin led the Cougars in the 200-meter dash, finishing in second place with a new school record of 27.83. Ramey came in fourth, and Smith ended in sixth with a 29.03.

Two of the women’s jumping events produced three Cougar scorers each. Women’s team captain Kiara Denholm (Columbus, Ind./North) placed second in the triple jump with a 32’ 6 ½”. Munkwitz joined her in fifth (30’ 11 ¾”) and first-time participant Cheryl Robaczewski (Schiller Park, Ill./East Leyden) in sixth (30’ 6 ¼”).

The long jump placed Ramey in third, Kyla Farquhar (Elgin, Ill./Elgin Academy) in sixth (15’ 2”) and Munkwitz in eighth (14’ 8 ¾”). Denholm was the only Cougar to score in the high jump with a 4’ 5 ½” for fourth place.

Amanda Allen (Deerfield, Wis./H.S.) placed second in the shot put with a 37’ 11 ½” while teammates Chrissy Diers (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) and Priscilla Thermidor (Queensbury, N.Y./H.S.) earned points in the 20-lb. weight throw. Diers finished fourth with a 41’ 11 ¼” and Thermidor sixth with a 40’ 10 ½”.

Concordia’s men moved up in the conference from an eighth place finish last year to a sixth place this time. Though not the top three finish they were aiming for, it represented a big jump for the men who scored 61 points in this year’s meet, compared to 25 last year. More significantly, the men were only 10 points away from fourth place, which bodes well for the NAC Outdoor Championships when the men will compete again.

The high point of the day for the Cougar men came in the pole vault where freshman Robert Fraga (Waco, Texas/Midway) won the event, setting an all-time NAC record, a NAC Indoor Championships meet record and a Concordia record by clearing the bar at 13’ 9 ¾”, more than four inches than the previous NAC mark and more than nine inches than his previous record.

Fraga was also the final leg of the men’s 4 x 400-meter relay team that finished fourth with a time of 3:37.25, the third-fastest time in school history. The other members of this group included James Pierce (Philadelphia, Penn./Marple Newtown) and twin brothers Nate and Jon Poppe (Racine, Wis./Lutheran).

The distance medley relay team of Derek Kieninger (Hanover Park, Ill./Hoffman Estates), Jon Poppe, Sal Montes (Cicero, Ill./Morton East) and Ethan McBee (Monroe, Mich./Lutheran South) came in third with a strong 11:13.93 marking the fourth fastest time in school history.

Khara Williams (Elmhurst, Ill./York Community), the Cougar men’s individual high scorer for the meet with 18 points, ran a solid second in the 200-meter dash with a 22.91 effort and placed fourth in the 55 with a 6.68. In the distance events, Nate Poppe ran the 800 in 2:03.56, good for fourth place. McBee took on the 3,000 and came in sixth with a 9:25.87.

A huge impact on the men’s scoring was Larry Mayne (Chicago, Ill./South Shore) who placed second in the triple jump with a personal best of 43’ 3 ¾”. Williams took fourth with a leap of 42’ 11”, and Marcus Cyrus (Bellwood, Ill./Walther Lutheran) scored with a sixth-place finish (41’ 8 ½”) despite suffering a serious knee strain earlier in the meet during the long jump.

The men’s points in the throwing events came from Chip Wylie (Menomonee Falls, Wis./Milwaukee Lutheran) in the 35-lb. weight throw. Wylie came in sixth out of 25 throwers with an effort of 44’ 0 ½”, breaking his own school record by almost a foot.

“Chip’s toss in the weight throw, as well as personal records for Justin Richardson (Gainesville, Fla./H.S.), Chris Petitti (Largo, Fla./Clearwater Catholic) and Anthony Bukauskas (Joliet, Ill./West) are to be commended. However, our male throwers as a group came up a bit short of what I’d hoped for both in performance and points, so we will need to continue working so that we perform the way we need to when it counts.

“When I took a call to Concordia three seasons ago to be the head coach, I created a 10-year vision for our program,” Beisel said. “One of the ambitious benchmarks I set was to have either our men or women win indoor conference by my third season.

“I am humbled and somewhat overcome by the fact that this happened. It’s hard to imagine us getting here so quickly without the tremendous support of our Director of Athletics Pete Gnan and the administration as a whole. We could not be here without the unbelievable coaching staff that God has seen fit to send my way. You add in each of the ladies on our team who have been such a joy to coach, and a men’s team who has supported the ladies in so many ways, and it adds up to many layers of blessings.”