The Raider Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Team has a busy season ahead of them. They have seven indoor meets and eight outdoor meets that are between one and three days, depending on the meet. This week they have the Concordia Polar Dog Invite in Steward, Nebraska on Jan. 19.
“Our athletes worked really hard all fall preparing for the indoor season.” Coach Bahrke said, “The indoor season competitions start right away when we get back to classes. We were supposed to have our first meet this past Saturday, but didn’t because of the weather.”
Each team is looking to repeat their streak of breaking records from last track season. They broke three records between the two teams. The record set for the women’s team was set by Jacie Vander Waal in the high jump with a jump of 1.64 meters at the GPAC meet.
The men’s team set school records in the 400-meter relay and the long jump. The 400-meter relay record was set by the team of Grant Palmer, Cody Post, Braden Jahn and Ashton Sandbulte with a time of 40.83 seconds at the GPAC invite. Braden Kalvelage set the school record in the long jump with a jump of 7.59 meters at the University of South Dakota. Last year, many of the athletes on the men’s and women’s team got all-conference rankings in outdoor as well as indoor track and field.
“Our coaching staff does a great job of putting our athletes through workouts that will challenge them and their bodies.” Bahrke said, ”It is a challenge for our athletes to train on their own for three weeks during our Christmas break. They are motivated by their individual goals and our team goals to get in their workouts from the end of December into the beginning of January.”
The team not only performs well on the track athletically, but also in the classrooms. The team knows that they are student-athletes, and an emphasis is put on them to take care of their coursework. The coaching staff asks them to be Raiders on and off the track, and to give 100% in practice and competitions.
“Academically our team has always done well as a group.” said Bahrke, “Our teams have been honored as scholar teams every year since I have been head coach and for a number of years before I was the coach.”
