Four Duhawks made history last weekend at the Drake Relays in Des Moines. 

Seniors Mary Bridget Corken and Hannah Weiss, junior Laura Rieger and first-year Maria Kalb made up the team that took first place in the Distance Medley Relays. The victory marked Loras’s first-ever women’s “college division” win at the Drake Relays. 

Needless to say, Coach Bob Schultz was very proud of the team.

“We beat an elite field that included NCAA Division II and NAIA scholarship schools,” he said. “They also broke the school record by 12 seconds, going from a 12:00 (which they ran at Drake last year to get 2nd) to 11:48.”

That same group also ran the 4 x 800 meter relay Saturday to take fifth place, and broke the school record by 17 seconds, dropping it from 9:26 down to 9:09.

At the Loras Open last Saturday, the weather was rainy and chilly, but Schultz knew that would not bring down the team.

“Our kids are tough and train in this, so it doesn’t affect them on race day.”
Several first-years stepped up in that meet, improving their time from the week before and beating many experienced athletes.  One of these was high-jumper Caitlin Groeper, who came in first place and reached a height of 1.57m. First-year Tim Derr, in the 110 meter hurdles, came in second place and finished in 15.78 seconds. First-year Molly Sieverding came in third in the 100-meter dash, with a time of 13.34 seconds. Just last week her time was 13.42, and she came in 16th. But Schultz wasn’t too surprised at her lower time and resulting stand-out finish this week.

“Molly is coming off an injury, so I am not surprised to see her time dropping. She works very hard and deserves all of her success,” he said.

First-year Kirsten Ferch also beat out many more experienced athletes. In the 400-meter dash, she came in first place with a time of 61.43, and last week she finished ninth with a time of 62.66. Schultz said that she also is reaping the rewards of all the effort that she has put in. 

“Similar to Molly, she is such a hard worker, and all of her hard work is paying off.  She will continue to get faster, too,” he said. 

Schultz also helped to explain all the first-year success.  

“Freshmen traditionally have a greater margin for improvement because of adapting to the change in training, and in some cases the change in events.  We have a great group in this class of 2013.”

Their next meet is at Monmouth College on Saturday, May 1. Schultz knows the team will have to work hard to come out on top at this upcoming meet. 

“The meet at Monmouth looks to be very good competition, and we are looking to our athletes to step up their efforts again against a high level of competition.”