FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul cross country program continued to trend upward with a strong team performance at the 2016 Roy Griak Invitational held at Les Bolstad Golf Course hosted by the University of Minnesota.

For the third meet in a row, the men's and women's teams improved the difference in time between their first and fifth runners. The men's side had a difference of 2:12 at Crown, 1:39.6 at Concordia-Wisconsin and 1:29 at the Griak. The women started at a 5:32 difference between first and fifth at Crown, moving to 2:33.9 at Concordia-Wisconsin and trimmed it to 2:06 at the Griak.

The men's season has been an historic one so far for the men's team, who topped the #20-ranked junior college program in the country, Johnson County CC and also topped a pair of NAIA teams receiving votes for the national poll in Dordt and Indiana Wesleyan.

The men's 1:29 difference between their top and fifth runners is the smallest margin since the 2004 season. The top five finishers average time of 28:36 was the lowest top five average since the same 2004 campaign, and a 4:27 improvement over the 2015 team's performance at the Griak, the greatest single one year turnaround in the history of the Roy Griak Division II race according to CSP's team record information.

The team 655 score was a 355 point improvement on the 2015 squad and the lowest total at the Griak for a CSP team since the 1996 event (388).

The men's team has been paced by a youth movement with an infusion of freshman runners. The Golden Bears had four of the top-20 NSIC freshman in the race, expanding out to five of the top-24 and six of the top-26.
 

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CSP Men's Individual Results
Team: 25th of 40 teams (463 Total Runners)

Caleb Troe – 76th Place – 27:47.0 – Runs the 10^nd fastest time by a Concordia runner on the current Les Bolstad Golf Course and the fastest race by a CSP runner since Jake Womeldorf in 2009.  Caleb improved his Roy Griak time from last year's race by 1 Minute and 36.3 seconds.  Caleb has the highest CSP finish since Jake Womeldorf finished 52^nd in 2009.  He runs 21.6 seconds faster today than his performance on the same course at last's year's NSIC Championships.  Caleb was the 20^th NSIC Finisher in today's race.  Caleb had an impressive 230 place improvement during the race from the 1^stKilometer to the finish.  Caleb improved his place by 52 places from the 5^thKilometer to the end of the race.

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Cole Oslin – 109^th Place – 28:05.7 – Cole runs the 2^nd fastest time by a CSP male runner on the current Concordia Wisconsin course.  Cole was the 6^thfastest NSIC first year runner in today's race.  Cole improved by 190 places from the 1^st kilometer to the end of the race.

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Benjamin Allen – 154^th Place – 28:39.9 –  Benjamin was the 13^th fastest NSIC first year runner in today's race.  Benjamin improved by 191 places from the 1^st Kilometer of the race to the finish.  Benjamin improved his place by 98 places from the 5^th Kilometer to the end of the race.  This was the single greatest place improvement of the race from the 5^th Kilometer to the finish.

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Tyler Hudson – 207^th Place – 29:06.8 – Tyler was the 18^th fastest NSIC first year runner in today's race.

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Tyler Karl – 223^rd Place – 29:15.3 – Tyler runs 58 seconds faster at this year's Roy Griak Invitational than last year's Griak.  Tyler runs 41.3 seconds faster on the Les Bolstad course today than he ran at last year's NSIC Championships on the same course.  Tyler has improved 1 minute 45.9 seconds from the first time that Tyler ran on the Les Bolstad course as a first year in 2014.

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Peyton Holmes – 236^th Place – 29:25.1 – This is the 1^st time that Peyton was in Concordia's top 6 runners in a race this season.  Peyton was the 20^th fastest NSIC first year runner in today's race.

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Abdirahman Mohamed – 264^th Place – 29:42.2 – Abdi set a new personal best time improving 24.8 seconds from his race at Crown College.

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Cory Warner – 283^rd Place – 29:56.2 –Cory improved his race position by 46 places from the 1 Kilometer mark to the finish of the race.

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Sean Colaco  – 300^th Place – 30:20.0 – New Personal Best Time.

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Kyle Skelton – 441^st Place – 35:47.8 – New Personal Best Time.
 

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CSP Women Individual Results
Team: 37th of 40 (399 Total Runners)

Ruth Lindberg – 211^th Place – 26:49.2 – Ruth ran 21.6 seconds faster at this year's Roy Griak Invitational than she did at last year's Roy Griak.  Ruth improved her place in the race by 88 places from the 1K mark to the finish.

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Erin Spatenka – 263^rd Place – 27:40.4 – Erin improved her place in the race by 40 places from the 1K Mark to the finish.

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Tasha Bennett – 292^nd  Place – 28:14.5 – Tasha improved her place in the race by 31 places from the 1 K mark to the finish of the race.

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Jordan Gray – 310^th Place – 28:40.8 – New season best time.  Jordan improved her place in the race by 34 place from the 1K mark to the finish of the race.

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Rachel Thaemert – 318th Place – 28:55.4 – Rachel improved by 40.7 seconds from her time at the Roy Griak last year.  She improved by 30 seconds from her time on the same course at last year's NSIC Championships.  Rachel improved her position in the race by 55 places from the 1K mark to the finish.

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Courtney Ramsay – 358th Place – 30:31.3 – Season Best Time.  Courtney starts her 2016 campaign 2 minutes and 2.6 seconds faster than she finished her 2015 season at the NSIC Championships.  Courtney runs the 12^th fastest time for a CSP woman runner at the current Concordia Wisconsin course.

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Lydia Carr – 362nd Place – 30:46.0

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Paxton Huberty – 365th Place – 30:55.4 – Paxton improved her place in the race by 17 places from the 1K mark to the finish.

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Holly Werning – Clock did not record Holly's time

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Erika Bahr – 389^th  Place – 38:09.0 – Erika improved her place in the race by 7 places from the 1K mark to the finish.