Courtesy of GoCobbers.com, Release: October 18, 2008

Meet Recap

ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. (10/18/08)-- Concordia used a group of seven underclassmen to come away with the team title at the Crown Invitational on Saturday. The Cobbers finished with a team score of 40 points which was 13 points better than runner-up UW-Superior who ended with 53 points.

Cobber sophomore Tom Sederquist won his third straight meet as he ran a 26:17 on a course filled with hills and won by 33 seconds. The real story for CC was the break-out performances by sophomores Nelson Godbolt and Michael Dunn who finished as the team's No.2 and No.3 runners.

In only his second collegiate cross country meet, Godbolt took the race out hard and Dunn, ND) decided to go for broke with him. The pair pushed the pace throughout the race and systematically picked off top runners until both broke into the top 10. Dunn finished sixth in a time of 27:55 and Godbolt was right behind at 28:04 - good for an eighth-place finish. Dunn set a lifetime best by nearly 30 seconds.

Godbolt's amazing ascension to the team's No.3 runner is even more remarkable given that he has not competed since 2004. Even more amazing is Godbolt's life story. He was diagnosed with cancer his sophomore year in high school and was told he could not compete athletically anymore. Since that time, Godbolt has enlisted with the Army and become active again, but has not competed in any high school or collegiate sport. One week ago he completed his Army Ranger training and testing. The week prior was Nelson's first competition since 2004. The morning of his first collegiate cross country 8K at Jamestown, he ran a 10K trial run in combat boots with a 40-pound pack for the Army.

Concordia head coach Garrick Larson tells the story, "Nelson is the surprise of the decade for our team. I heard from men's hockey coach Chris Howe that he had a kid in Wellness class that ran a fast mile (I've heard that one before). I e-mailed Nelson to come visit with me. He showed up in my office a couple days later. Nelson told me his story and I asked if he'd like to join us for cross country. He wanted to come to practice that day! I tried to dissuade him because we were doing a super hard 5x1-mile workout. All I could think was, welcome to cross country, now you'll be thrown into the fire. I've got fit athletes that come out for cross country and can only do 3-4x 1 Mile after three weeks of training. Later the same day, Nelson did all five mile repeats! I immediately knew not only did I have a kid with talent, but a kid with mental toughness too," said Larson enthusiastically.

Larson then went on to summarize the Cobbers this season, "I'm really encouraged about our whole team. We've got sixteen freshmen and sophomores on the team and many of them really took a big step today. Our guys just kept coming on late in the race to the point where I realized we had a shot to overtake UW-Superior and win the meet."

"David Ohmann (Fr, Apple Valley HS, MN) ran outstanding today too. David broke 30:00 for the first time and cracked the top 20 finishers. Commenting on David's progress, Coach Larson stated, "Ohmann ran the equivalent of 18:35 for 5k today and then added another two miles at that pace. A year ago in high school David would have struggled to match that pace for a 5K. He's worked really hard and is at a whole different level this fall."

The Cobbers have next weekend off to fine tune their training leading into the MIAC Championship on Saturday, November 1.

Complete Team Results

1. Concordia - 40
2. UW-Superior - 53
3. Minnesota Morris - 67
4. St. Scholastica - 111
5. North Central Univ - 134
6. Crown College - 140
7. Presentation - 211

Top 20 Individual Results

1. Tom Sederquist - 26:17.9 - Concordia
2. Seth Brickley - 26:50.7 - Crown College
3. Daniel Bare - 27:13.2 - North Central Univ
4. Luke Toso - 27:40.7 - Minnesota Morris
5. Andrew Rehmann - 27:48.9 - Minnesota Morris
6. Michael Dunn - 27:55.9 - Concordia
7. Seth Neumann - 27:59.9 - Uw-Superior
8. Nelson Godbolt - 28:04.5 - Concordia
9. Taylor Gombos - 28:32.0 - Uw-Superior
10. Scott Eisenach - 28:32.4 - Uw-Superior
11. Jordan Peterson - 28:41.5 - Uw-Superior
12. Mike Reponen - 28:55.3 - Concordia
13. Adam Fitzgerald - 28:57.6 - Concordia
14. Jacob Stunek - 29:04.6 - Concordia
15. Eric Juven - 29:19.0 - Concordia
16. Ed Hirsch - 29:22.2 - Uw-Superior
17. Kyle Smith - 29:23.9 - St. Scholastica
18. Ian Philbrick - 29:35.6 - Minnesota Morris
19. Dugan Flanders - 29:40.5 - Minnesota Morris
20. David Ohmann - 29:42.6 - Concordia

Complete Concordia Results

1. Tom Sederquist - 26:17.9 - Concordia
6. Michael Dunn - 27:55.9 - Concordia
8. Nelson Godbolt - 28:04.5 - Concordia
12. Mike Reponen - 28:55.3 - Concordia
13. Adam Fitzgerald - 28:57.6 - Concordia
14. Jacob Stunek - 29:04.6 - Concordia
15. Eric Juven - 29:19.0 - Concordia
20. David Ohmann - 29:42.6 - Concordia