RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The Concordia-St. Paul's men's and women's cross country teams traveled to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx this week to compete in the John "Paddy" Doyle Meet of Champions. In a Division I heavy field, the men finished fifth out of eight and the women finished in eighth of nine teams. 

When reflecting on the team's performance against the stiff competition he stated, "I am proud of the way the team battled today.  We had some adversity that the team fought through to compete against a number of D1 programs.  We saw strong finishes on a challenging course by a number of the Golden Bears."
 
Men's Results Overview

The men competed against seven teams, all but one being Division I schools. The host Iona won the men's five mile run with a score of 39 beating out Army West Point (49) by ten points and third place University of Buffalo (61) by 22 . The Golden Bears beat two division one teams Fairfield (166) and Quinnipiac (175) to claim fifth, behind fourth place Binghamton (75).

Concordia was led by a familiar trio of sophomores as Owen Erickson, Matthew Helser, and Matt Krummel who all finished in the top 40 out of 68 runners. 

Erickson had an impressive performance, finishing in 28th with a time of 26:54.50. He broke his previous personal 8K record by 14 seconds. 

Dropping to number two for CSP this week was Helser, who also had a good meet result finishing in 36th behind a time of 27:25.60. 

The last of Concordia's year twos the top 40 was Krummel, who finished just inside at 39th after running a 27:36:60.

Second semester transfer Emmett Faltesek, and freshman Ethan Blischke, rounded out the CSP top five finishing at 46th (28:04.80) and 49th (28:50.50 respectively.

Women's Results Overview

The Concordia women ran against nine teams, including Division I schools: Army West Point, Binghamton University, University of Buffalo, Fairfield University, Iona, St. Johns, and UConn. The Golden Bears finished with 237 points and finished in eighth place. The Binghamton women were dominant and swept the podium to win the meet with 36 points. Only Army West Point (46) was within 67 points of first. 

For the second meet in a row, freshman Makayla Harmer was the top CSP women's runner. She finished in 51st with a time of 21:54.30. 

Jaid Perry was the second runner in for the Golden Bears with a time of 22:43.40, coming in 56th place. Two spots up was Taylor Houglum in 58th, running a 23:01.90. 

Sophomore Kelsey Thelen and Junior Avery Sivonen completed the team's five scoring runners back to back at 60th and 61st. Thelen finished with a time of 23:31.60 and Sivonen finished in 29:33.00.

The Bears will return to the Twin Cities next weekend for the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota on Friday, September 23.

Men's Individual Full Results
28th Place – Owen Erickson – 26:54.5 – New Personal Best Record improving by 14 seconds from his 2021 Personal Best Time.  Owen sets a new CSP team record at the historic 109-year-old Van Cortland Park Cross Country Course.
36th Place – Matthew Helser – 27:25.6 – Matthew improved by 2 places from the 5K mark to the end of the race.
39th Place – Matthew Krummel – 27:36.6 – Matthew had the biggest place improvement of any Golden Bear from the 5K mark to the end of the race as he improved 6 places to spur the Bears onto that 5th place finish.
46th Place – Emmett Faltesek – 28:04.8 – New Personal Best Record improving by 19.6 seconds from his 2021 Personal Best Time.  Emmett improved by 2 places from the 5K mark to the end of the race.
49th Place – Ethan Blischke – 28:50.5 – New Personal Best Record.  Ethan improved by 3 places from the 5K mark to the end of the race.
57th Place – Travis Andrews – 31:10.7
59th Place – James Frigstad – 31:43.6
62nd Place – Cullen Flieth – 33:21.1 – New Personal Best Time
  
Women's Individual Full Results
51st Place – Makayla Harmer – 21:54.3 – Makayla sets a new CSP team record at the historic 109-year-old Van Cortland Park Cross Country Course.
56th Place – Jaid Perry – 22:43.4
58th Place – Tess Houglum – 23:01.9
60th Place – Kelsey Thelen – 23:31.6
61st Place – Avery Sivonen – 23:39.0
62nd Place – Olivia Cole – 24:12.8