Feb. 15, 2020 - The Concordia-Chicago track and field teams did double duty this weekend, with some traveling for the Big Meet Friday at Grand Valley State University on Feb. 14 and others going to Ripon College for the Dick Hendricks Invitational on Feb. 15.

Thomas McNamara made the big news at GVSU with a no-doubt new school record in the 5,000 meters. After recently coming within a quarter of a second of Tim Grotelueschen's 1992 record of 15:24.18, he took 20 seconds off his own time with a 15:04.73.

Tyrique Thomas also competed at GVSU, looking to break his school record in the 60-meter hurdles. He came up just .04 short with a time of 8.65 seconds. However, Thomas competed in the other meet of the weekend at Ripon, and he tied his NACC-leading mark of 8.61, winning the event by .08 over his closest competition.

The 4 x 400-meter relay team of Brandon Ellis, Adam Gray, Max Woywod and Thomas took three seconds off their previous-best time from the Feb. 1 Titan Open, winning the event with a 3:31.64. They moved up a notch in the NACC rankings as well, taking over second place. In the individual 400, Woywod ran a career-best 52.31 and finished in second place out of 31 runners. Ellis was right behind in third place with a time of 52.76. 

In the mile, McNamara came back to run a 4:35.04 and finish in fifth place. Ernest Bogart took five seconds off his previous best and finished in 4:42.45, coming in eighth place.

The Cougars will compete in one more meet before the conference championships, traveling to the University of Chicago for the Margaret Bradley Invitational next Saturday, Feb. 22.