MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The Concordia University Cross Country teams competed in the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota in an event that covers all divisions of athletic competition. The annual tournament brings in teams from all over the country to compete at the U of M golf course.
The Golden Bears received a strong effort from Jake Womeldorf (Jr., Northfield, Minn.)and the men's team showed improvement from one week ago. Womeldorf had the best Roy Griak race by a CU male runner in the last decade. With his time of 27.21.5, the junior secured a 52nd place finish which is the best finish by a CU runner since Alex Payne finished 43rd at the Roy Griak Invite in 1996. Womeldorf was not alone in running well against a strong field of 237 competitors. Daniel Schield (Sr., Two Harbors, Minn.) and Travis Wagers (So., Moose Lake, Minn.) followed Womeldorf's lead crossing the finish line with improved times. Schield finished with a time of 28:31.5 and Wagers crossed the line in 28:52.2.
The women's squad followed to form and improved at the Roy Griak Invite from their last outing. The women were led by Katie Monahan (Jr., Waseca, Minn.) who used a strong second half of the race to move past 53 runners to finish in 169th place. Following closely behind her with an equally impressive last half of the race was senior Megan Fulton (Sussex, Wis.) who used a 26:10.8 effort to finish 177th out of 287 runners. Senior Sandra James (St. Paul, Minn.) completed her final Roy Griak race with a time of 29:56.1.
Coach Jonathan Breitbarth commented on the improvement of his squad. "I am confident that each week a new runner will step up to lead the charge in showing improvement from one week to the next," commented Breitbarth. "Today it happened to be our talented juniors Jacob Womeldorf and Katie Monohan who spearheaded the improvement."
The Golden Bears return to action next Saturday at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational hosted by Loyola-Chicago. The competition will include several NCAA Division I schools and nationally ranked teams from Division II and Division III.
Men’s Results
Improvement of Note: (The CU men’s team ranked as having the 5th best improvement out of the 12 schools who competed at St. Olaf and the Roy Griak.
52nd Place - Jacob Womeldorf – 27:21.5 (Season best time, Jake improved by 35.5 seconds from last week’s St. Olaf Invitational. That improvement was the 9th best improvement out of the 95 runners who ran both St. Olaf last week and the Griak this week. Jake’s finish today was the highest CU Male place finish at Roy Griak since Alex Payne finished 43rd in 1996. It is the 5th best place finish by a CU Male at the Roy Griak in school history. It is 4th fastest CU time on the current Roy Griak course. Today’s effort moves Jacob into 13th on the list the list Men’s CU best 8 Kilometer race times. )
116th Place - Daniel Schield – 28:31.5
136th Place – Travis Wagers – 28:52.2
195th Place – Brandon Kotek – 30:49.4
Women’s Results
169th Place – Katie Monahan – 26:04.6 (Season Best Time)
177th Place – Megan Fulton – 26:10.8
275th Place – Megan Fulton – 29:56.1
