ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia University men's and women's cross country teams will travel to familiar territory, Wayne, Neb. to compete in the NCAA Central Regional Meet which is hosted by Wayne State. After a disappointing finish at the NSIC Championships two weeks ago the cross country runners will look to make improvements in their final race of the season. The Golden Bears will go up against some of the best runners the nation has to offer. The Central Region features Adams State on the men's side who ranks No. 1 in the country in the latest rankings released yesterday.
Head Coach Jonathan Breitbarth is hoping for an improvement from their last race at the NSIC Championships.
"We expect to have improved results," said Breitbarth. "We have now had two weeks of solid practice, and we know we can achieve better times than we did in the NSIC meet."
CU will face a lot of teams who train in much higher altitudes than the Golden Bears. "This will be a great opportunity for us to see what we're made of," said Breitbarth.
The NSIC is well represented in the national rankings. The men's squad at Augustana enters the Central Regional meet ranked #25, while the women's poll is represented by #7 Augustana and #13 Minnesota Duluth.
The cross country teams head into familiar territory as they have competed in numerous events at Wayne State. The course at Wayne is a fair spectator friendly course with some hills that will challenge the runners. All of the CU upperclassmen have run at Wayne State and should be comfortable with the course.
The men's squad which is led by Jake Womeldorf (Jr., Northfield, Minn.) who finished 20th at the NSIC Championships and earned All-NSIC second team honors. The men have been working for two weeks and will have to adjust to a 10k race at the regional event. All of the meets that the Golden Bears have run have been 8k races.
This will be a memorable meet for the Golden Bear senior runners. Brandon Kotek (Sr., Montgomery, Minn.), Dan Schield (Sr., Two Harbors, Minn.), Megan Fulton (Sr., Sussex, Wis.) and Sandra James (Sr., St. Paul, Minn.) will all compete in their last cross country meet this weekend.
"This will be a memorable day for our seniors," said Breitbarth. "I expect a senior effort out of all of them, hopefully they will step up to the challenge," Breitbarth added.
The women's race will begin at 10 a.m. and the men will toe the line at 11 a.m. in Wayne, Neb. Stay tuned for results and a re-cap from Saturday's NCAA Central Regional race.
