(Rochester Hills, Mich.) Concordia men's and women's track & field made the return to competition after a week off, finishing fifth and eighth, respectively, at the Golden Grizzlies Invite, hosted by Oakland University. The competition was stacked with NCAA Division I and II schools. The Cardinals men's team ran strong to beat Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan and Wayne State, with the women's team outscoring Detroit-Mercy. The Cardinals were also able to capture a number of personal best performances and three NCCAA qualifying marks.
Senior Alan Jones (Canton, MI) and Freshman Noah Starkey (Macomb, MI) qualified for the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Outdoor championships in the 400m, running 51:07 and 51:06, respectively. The duo went on to run the 200m, with Jones running 22.93 and Starkey running 23.44. On the women's sprints side, Mae Dulin (Detroit, MI) and Destiny McBride (Greenfield, WI) ran the 100m dash, with times of 13.40 and 14.80, respectively. McBride also went on to run the 200m, running a personal best of 31.17.
The men's distance squad saw depth with Avery Sanchez (Allen Park, MI), Michael Brannan (Dearborn Heights, MI), Adam DiMaggio (Irma, SC), and Teddy Eising (Royal Oak, MI) running together in the 800m. Sanchez captured sixth place with a time of 2:13.74. Eising finished just behind Sanchez with a time of 2:14.16, DiMaggio with a time of 2:17.01 and Brannan running 2:21.82. Eising and DiMaggio went on to run the 1,500m, running 4:43.57 and 4:55.57, a personal best for Eising. Wrapping up the track events, Jones, Sanchez, Starkey, and Brannan took second place in the men's 4x400m, running 3:49.37.
On the women's distance side, Lydia Schroeder (Napoleon, OH) had personal bests in both the 800m and 1,500m, running 2:45.25 and 5:52.96, respectively. Joining her in both events were teammates Gabby Porter (Quincy, MI) and Megan Espinoza (Manistique, MI). Running ahead was Porter with a time of 2:34.66 in the 800m, and 5:16.81 in the 1,500m. Espinoza also ran for personal bests in both events, running 2:53.98 in the 800m and 5:42.38 in the 1,500m. Freshman Anna Glomski (Kalamazoo, MI) rounded out the distance squad to join her teammates in the 800m, running a time of 3:06.94.
In the field events, Richard Branch (Detroit, MI) punched his ticket to the NCCAA championships in the javelin throw, tossing a new personal best of 44.14m to qualify. Branch also went on to throw personal bests in the men's shot put (10.90m) and in the hammer throw (30.41m). The throws squad continued success with a number of personal bests. Josh Wood (Champagne, IL) threw a new personal best of 20.00m in the discus and Noah Pastrana (Dayton, OH) saw personal bests in the discus (28.64m) and hammer throws (33.94m). Hayle Flowers (Waverly, MI) had personal bests in all three of her events today, throwing 9.33m in the shot put, 25.33m in the javelin throw and 29.82m in the discus throw. Throws teammate Alyvia Hock (Manchester, MI) saw a season best in the shot put with a toss of 7.10m and wrapped up the day in the discus throw with a heave of 25.83m.
Rounding out the field events and grabbing a fourth place finish with a jump of 1.45m was Sierra Stechebar (Rockford, MI) in the high jump.
The Cardinals return to action next Friday and Saturday April 16-17, 2021 at the Tiffin University Outdoor Invitational in Tiffin, OH. Follow along with the CUAATFXC twitter account as action begins at 12:30pm on Friday.
