Warriors Shine at Concordia Twilight Ahead of Nationals

SEWARD, Neb. — Midland University returned to the oval Friday as a handful of athletes traveled to Seward, Nebraska, to compete in the Concordia Twilight. Hosted by Concordia University, Nebraska, the meet featured athletes from 27 universities, including Great Plains Athletic Conference members Concordia, Doane, Hastings, Morningside, Mount Marty, Northwestern, and St. Mary. Battling for national qualifying spots, several Warriors placed in the top 10.

As a quartet, Koen Steenblok, Braden Taylor, Christian Olsen, and Lucas Hjortkjaer broke the Midland program record in the 4x800-meter relay with a time of 7:36.81. The group improved its season-best mark by nearly nine seconds and qualified for the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a B-standard time.

Tanja Zubrod finished second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.86 seconds, while Cannelle Beaujolais secured ninth in 28.07 seconds.

Placing fourth in the 4x100-meter relay, Caelianna Risler, Tanja Zubrod, Aurora Griffin, and Amber van Beugen hit the NAIA automatic qualifying standard with a time of 47.81 seconds.

Josiah Meyer placed fifth in the javelin throw with a mark of 49.66 meters.

In the hammer throw, Federico Migliano finished eighth with a toss of 51.67 meters.

With a leap of 4.91 meters, Josie Reiff placed fifth in the long jump. She later added a ninth-place finish in the triple jump with a mark of 9.94 meters.

Four Warriors finished in the top 10 of the 100-meter preliminaries. Caelianna Risler led the way in fifth with a time of 12.60 seconds, while Amber van Beugen followed in sixth at 12.66. Aurora Griffin placed eighth in 12.75, and Cannelle Beaujolais rounded out the group in 10th with a time of 13.10.

"The men's 4x800 relay quartet blew away expectations and was the highlight of the meet," head coach Daniel Gerber said.

Midland will conclude its season by traveling to Asheville to compete in the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 20-22.