ST. PAUL, MINN. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's cross country team will start its 2023 season at the 12th Annual Augie Twilight on Friday, September 1. The 5K women's race begins at 8:30 p.m. under the lights.
"It's a different environment than what we deal with throughout the year. Under the lights with the glowsticks. Essentially a soccer field with thousands of people running around. Our focus is always running our best at conference and regionals and that's what the sport is all about which is running well at those big-time meets. This is a starting point to figure out what our athletes need to get better throughout the year," said head coach Jonathan Breitbarth.
Concordia has been making the trip to Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota since 2019. Last year, the women finished 24th out of the 28 teams that competed. Makayla Harmer led the way finishing 144th out of 313 runners for the Golden Bears last season.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN BEARS
Concordia-St. Paul was picked to finish 14th in the NSIC preseason coaches' poll and the team improved its average time at the NSIC Championship last season by 1:00.15 seconds. That ended up being the second-best improvement of any team in the NSIC.
"We've seen some development with some girls that have really worked hard over the summer and some good PRs last spring. They responded well to the workload this summer," Breitbarth said.
Kelsey Thelan comes into this season as the NSIC athlete to watch for Concordia. She was the top finisher for CSP last season at the NSIC Championships with a 91st-place finish.
"She's a daughter of a coach, so she definitely has a big picture type of view. She has a competitiveness to her and drives taking us to the next level," Breitbarth said.
The other two returners for the Golden Bears are Harmer, who returns for her sophomore season, and Tess Houglum, who returns for her junior season.
"Tess really made her jump last outdoor track season and had some nice times She broke that 20-minute barrier in the 5K and had some good improvement," Breitbarth said.
Some returners who are expected to make a jump are junior Anna Sajdak and sophomore Nyadio Chan.
"Our fifth, sixth and seventh runners last year now have really jumped up and we've got a pretty close-knit group. That's just going to help elevate everybody. Those two made nice improvement which also pushes everyone else," Breitbarth said.
Newcomer Madison Bryant is also in the mix for the Golden Bears. The freshman out of Blaine High School competed in basketball and softball before going out for cross country and track & field her senior year. She tallied 17 letters in high school.
"She's got a lot of potential. This is by far the most training she's done in the summer. She's healthy and ready to go. She's going to bring a lot to the team," Breitbarth said.
The NSIC Championships this year will be hosted by UMary at McDowell Dam in Bismarck, North Dakota on October 21. The NCAA Central Region Championships will take place on November 4 in Joplin, Missouri. The NCAA Division II Women's National Championships will take place on November 18 in Joplin as well.
