After dominating performances at their own meet, the men’s and women’s cross-country teams have spent the past two weeks gearing up for the Iowa Conference Championships, which will take place Saturday in Waverly, Iowa, home of Wartburg College.

After the conference meet, the Duhawks will prepare for the regional meet, which they hope will vault them into the NCAA Division III Nationals.

But no one is thinking about that right now. The conference meet will be a daunting challenge, as the Iowa Conference often has several teams ranked high in Division III.

“I like our chances, I think we are going to surprise a lot of teams,” said Coach Bob Schultz. “If we run very well, I believe both teams could finish second.”

Schultz said both teams have shown many improvements over the stretch of the season, and he is confident that they will perform well this weekend. His philosophy is to run hard throughout the regular season and then taper off for the postseason.

“We race tired all year to run our best at Conference, Regionals and, hopefully, Nationals,” he said. “We have started to back off our training. The work is done. Now it is time to get our legs back and race fresh for the first time all season.”

Both teams finished first in the Dr. Robert Tucker Invitational, which Loras hosted Oct. 16 at the Dubuque Soccer Complex. Schultz said both teams looked strong.

In the women’s race, 10 Duhawks finished among the top 12 runners. Junior Tara Kilburg won the 6K race, followed by seniors Hannah Weiss, who was the runner-up, and Erica Stevens, who finished third. First-year Ashley Schoenoff finished fifth in the race.

In the men’s race, four Duhawks placed among the top eight runners. Junior Ryan Engelman won the race, while junior Mike Higgins was the runner-up. Junior Dain Leytem finished seventh and first-year Austin Steil was eighth.

“I like having our home meet the last meet before conference, and I also like that it is a low key meet,” Schultz said. “A win on both sides hopefully gives our team the confidence that they are a good team and ready to race at the Conference Championships.”