The men’s cross-country team is the 2011 Iowa Conference Champions after finishing in first at Luther last Saturday. The first-place finish gave the Duhawks their fourth championship in school history, their last being in 1997.

Senior Dan McDermott finished first for the Duhawks as has been the story all season; and finished second overall with a time of 25:22 just eight seconds behind the first-place runner.

“I knew I had to put myself in the top two if we wanted to win as a team,” said McDermott. “I just ran the race strategy coach put out for me and I was able to come in second. It would have been nice to win the race but I would much rather have a team title.”

MARLON TORRES

The men’s team poses with the Iowa Conference hardware after its wins its first conference title since 1997. Individually, senior Dan McDermott was the runner-up to pace the Duhawks.

First-years Ty Wittman and Rob Howe finished 16th and 17th overall with times of 26:10 and 26:13, respectively, to round out the scoring for the Duhawks and also win them the Championship over Luther by three places. Junior Chris Higgins finished 21st overall and sixth for Loras and first-year Steve Loran finished 23rd overall.

McDermott described the win as a “total team effort.”

“We knew we were the best team going in, and all we had to do was run to our potential and we would win. Everybody from top to bottom on our team ran great.”

The Duhawks came within four points of winning the conference championship last season, but Luther came away with the title on Loras’ home course. It seems it was almost scripted this year as the meet was run on Luther’s home course and Loras ousted Luther by three points.

“It was amazing to go on to Luther’s home course and take the Conference Championship,” said McDermott. “They have won in the last 5 years. After losing by 11 my freshman year and 4 junior year, it was a huge relief after we won the title.”

To go along with the Iowa Conference Championship, Coach Bob Schultz was also voted the 2011 Iowa Conference Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year after the race, he is the second coach in school history to win the award.

The Duhawks will next compete in the Division III Central Region Championships on November 12th, in Waverly.

The women’s cross-country team also posted impressive results last Saturday, taking home a third-place overall finish at the Iowa Conference Championships. The team was led by two top-eight finishes by senior Genna Kinley and sophomore Mary Rector.

The Duhawks took third place by a 23-point margin, beating out Cornell, which came in seeded third in the conference. Kinley crossed the finish line first for the Duhawks en route to a 7th overall finish with a time of 23:01. Rector finished eighth overall with a time of 23:12 to receive All-Conference honors along with Kinley.

Junior Katie Flogel finished the race in 23:38 to place 16th overall. Rounding out the scoring for the Duhawks was senior Katie Hemesath (21st, 23:52) and sophomore Kellie Wagner (26th, 24:11).

“This was our goal from the beginning of the season,” said coach Bob Schultz. “We were seeded 4th coming in and finished 3rd with a pretty good margin over 4th place. The effort was terrific.”

The women now look towards competing at the Central Regional Championships on the 12th and Coach Schultz has stated that the team goal is to finish in the top eight. The girls finished 10th overall last year.

The men’s top seven cross-country runners all finished the 5-mile course in 27 minutes or faster this past weekend at the Pre-Nationals meet, en route to a 15th-place overall finish in a competitive field of 47 teams.

And a week before that, the Duhawks won the Dan Huston Invitational, hosted by Wartburg, beating No. 10-ranked Augustana by 9 points as well as outrunning the No. 20-ranked University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

The Pre-Nationals, which was hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, was no field for slouches either, as it included 12 of the nation’s top 35 teams.

“We were hoping for a top-15 finish and we finished 15th,” said Coach Bob Schultz. “We wanted to get a good feel for the NCAA course so we could come back in five weeks and race well on it.”

And race well they did. In the field of 400 runners, all seven varsity runners placed in the top 150.

Senior Dan McDermott led the way for the Duhawks, crossing the finish line in 25:51, good enough for a 34th-place individual finish among 400 runners. Sophomore Jerry Olp finished 65th overall with a time of 26:14.

Schultz also singled out the “great” performance of Loras’ No. 3 runner, first-year Ty Wittman, who crossed the finish line 12 seconds behind Olp to place 86th overall.

Rounding out the scoring for the Duhawks was first-year Steve Loran (26:40, 113th place) and junior Chris Higgins (26:54, 134th. Just seconds behind Higgins was first-year Rob Howe (26:56) and junior Austin Steil (27:00).

It was a respectable 15-place finish for the team, but Schultz believes the team has room to improve.

“It wasn’t our best race, yet we still placed well. That has been our theme this season. We are much better than we showed that day.”

Now the Duhawks will set their sights on the Iowa Conference Championships, which will take place this Saturday at Luther. Last year, the Duhawks were edged out for the conference title by a mere four points, as Luther won the race. Schultz expects the Duhawks to put it all on the line Saturday.

“It sounds simple, but if each guy can equal what he has already done this season, we should come out on top.”

The women’s cross-country team also has put together a string of good outings. The Duhawks finished fourth at the Dan Huston Invitational three weeks ago and carried that success to a first-place finish while hosting the Dr. Robert Tucker Invitational the following week. Loras edged out a good Augustana team by three points.

“Our women had a great performance,” Schultz said. “They went out smart and moved up really well to beat an Augustana team that beat us pretty easily the first meet of the season.”

The Duhawks placed all five of their scoring runners in the top 12, including four top-10 finishes. Overall, the top seven runners all placed within the top 26 in the field of 67.

Senior Genna Kinley continues to lead the team to the finish line, placing fourth individually with an 8K time of 23:33. Finishing seventh, eighth, and ninth, respectively, were juniors Mary Rector, Katie Flogel and Katie Hemesath.

Junior Kellie Wagner rounding out the scoring for the Duhawks with a 12th-place finish during what Schultz called “her best race ever as a Duhawk.” First-year Hallie Martin finished 21st and junior Maria Kalb finished 26th.

The women are hoping to improve on their fourth-place finish at the conference tournament last year.

“Our women have gotten better every race this season,” said Schultz. “That will carry over very well into the conference meet and I am really excited for them to see what they can do on Saturday.”

by Daniel McDermott

Did you know that we have a Student Union? If you did, do you have any idea what the Student Union does? This year, one of the main goals of the Student Union is to make students more aware of what we are doing for you. We have nine committees that are working on several different student issues.

The first committee is the Marketing and Communications committee. They have been using Facebook, Twitter, OrgSync, and eventually YouTube to give the students updates. In addition, the committee will be helping to publicize student organization events. If you are interested in this service, please contact the head of this committee, Kinsey Campbell.

The second committee is the Aesthetics Committee. They started out by looking into the possibility of getting a bonfire pit somewhere on campus. Due to current fire codes, this is unfortunately an impossibility. They are now assessing what the student body’s priority list is for improvements on campus. Make sure you look for the survey in the future to make sure that your opinion is heard.

The third committee is the Bus Route Committee. The purpose of this committee was to work with the city of Dubuque, Clarke and University of Dubuque to establish a bus route targeting college students. This bus route will take students to movie theatres, grocery stores, and the mall during the day and at night will shuttle students downtown. The city of Dubuque has passed a grant to fund the project and it is expected to be implemented during this semester.

The next committee is the Student Entertainment Center Committee (SEC).  Created by Chris Higgins last year, the SEC would be a place centrally located on campus, where students can gather to socialize. It is intended to have big screens, arcade games, billiards, comfortable furniture, and many other possibilities. The preliminary plans have been handed over to the Aesthetics Committee to see if this is actually a student priority.

The fifth committee is the Wider Selection in the Pub Committee.  So far they have worked with Loras College Campus Dining to get chicken wraps back into the pub and offered other suggestions that will help improve Campus Dining as a whole. Also they are going to start a conversation about bringing alcohol into the Pub—no promises.

Our sixth committee is the Campus Pride Committee. This committee will strive to improve school spirit by encouraging attendance at sporting events, theatrical productions, band concerts, choir concerts, and many other activities. They are responsible for the new “This Week at Loras” email that students have received and will be selling Duhawk Nation shirts outside the Café this week.

The seventh committee is the Sustainability Committee, which is dedicated to reducing Loras’ carbon footprint. One way they are doing this is the new UCarShare program, making it possible to rent a car by the hour to run errands. Hopefully students will begin to leave their car at home and utilize this program. It has a very easy website to use and is affordable. Please make sure to test drive our new Prius and Cube that we have on campus.

The final committee is the Mission and Identity Committee. The members of this committee serve as our student representatives, and will also be in charge of organizing our Student Union service project and keeping track of service hours.
As you can see the Student Union is hard at work for its students. As committees accomplish their goals, they are rolled over into new committees. Most importantly, we are constantly looking for student input. Feel free to contact your class representatives or email us at student.union@loras.edu. We would love to hear your suggestions. Make sure you like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LCStudentUnion.

Students, alums and local community members gathered Sunday to enjoy meals from around the world that was prepared by the members of LISA (Loras International Student Association).

“This was an opportunity for people to get to know each other,” said LISA president Sergio Perez. “Sharing a meal between different cultures builds relationships between people of different backgrounds. LISA strives to provide opportunities for people to share intercultural experiences.”

Rajendra Thakurathi | My Duhawk

Senior Nang Khai prepares sushi for the international dinner.

The guests were impressed by the quality and variety of the dishes. Ali Said, Arabic-studies professor, said the dinner was “wonderful — bringing people together over food.”

“The food is great, (and) speaks volumes on Loras’ effort to integrate their students,” added Hakeem Mahdi, a teacher and a representative for the Islamic Center.

The students who made the food had “a great opportunity to share their culture with others,” said sophomore Alejandro Cosmopolis, who made the popular pollo saltado.

This year’s dinner introduced an element of competition. Students said they had fun decorating and cooking with the help of Aramark, and, in some of the cases, even relatives.

Smriti Shakya

Sophomore Alejandro Cosmopolis (from left) and sophomore Carolina Rusinque serve sophomore Chris Higgins and other students.

The men’s and women’s cross-country team competed in the 26th annual Roy Griak Invitational last Saturday in Minneapolis and posted impressive results in a meet that is annually one of the largest in the nation.

The men continually have posted good results all season, and they carried their success en route to a sixth-place finish in the 32-team field.

Senior Dan McDermott led the way for the Duhawks, as has been the story thus far this season, finishing 11th overall, a mere one second away from a top-10 finish at 26:06.

Kyle Schaffer

Junior Katie Flogel runs in the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis. She helped her team place 11th out of 32 teams.

Sophomore Jerry Olp returned to the lineup for the first time this season and placed 42nd overall, finishing one second behind Higgins to round out the scoring for Loras.

First-year Rob Howe placed 52nd overall and senior Chris Miller 67th. The team score of 164 was two places away from a top-5 finish overall.

In four meets this season the Duhawks have finished at no higher than 6th place, and coach Schultz described his team’s performance in Minneapolis.

“Not our best performance, but we placed well. Competition is always top notch at Griak. We beat a nationally ranked team and were close to some others,” said Schultz. First-year Steve Loran had a great race and it was nice to have Jerry Olp back in the lineup.  Senior Chris Miller made our varsity (top 7) lineup for the first time in his career.”

The Duhawks will have a two-week layoff before their next meet and hope to use the time to their advantage.

“This is what my high school coach used to call a ‘money in the bank’ week since we aren’t racing,” said Schultz. “We will train very hard and not have to worry about resting up for a race on Saturday.”

The men moved up one spot in Division III Central Region rankings to No. 4 overall following the meet on Saturday. Their next meet will be in Waverly, IA, on Oct. 8.

Schultz called his team’s performance in Minneapolis “our best meet of the season.” The women placed 11th overall as a team in the very strong 32-team field.

Senior Genna Kinley continues to set the pace for the Duhawks, finishing first for her team and 19th overall with a time of 23:15 in the field of 385 competitors.

Kinley’s time was the ninth-fastest in Loras history.

Sophomore Mary Rector placed 40th overall with a time of 24:03 and junior Katie Flogel crossed at 24:31 for a 59th-place overall finish.

Completing the scoring for the Duhawks was senior Katie Hemesath and sophomore Kellie Wagner, who finished 78th and 97th overall, respectively.

Junior Maria Kalb finished 103rd overall and freshman Hallie Martin finished 124th.

“We are getting out better,” said Schultz. “We look much more competitive during the race than our first meet. We beat some good teams and were very close to some nationally ranked teams.”

The Duhawks will try to maintain their momentum as they endure a two-week hiatus from competition.

“We need the break,” admitted Schultz. “Three races in 14 days is a lot, so I’m sure our athletes will benefit from the weekend away from racing.”

The men and women’s cross-country teams brought home impressive finishes on their annual trip to the highly competitive National Catholic Championships at Notre Dame last weekend.

The men’s team finished fourth overall among all non-Division I schools, which also was the best finish among all of the Division III schools at the competition.

Marlon Torres

A pack of Loras cross-country runners compete at the National Catholic Championships at Notre Dame.

Once again, senior Dan McDermott finished first for the Duhawks with a time of 25:30, good enough for 27th overall in the field of 250-plus runners (fourth overall among non-Division I schools).

Junior Austin Steil crossed the finish line next for the Duhawks, 20 seconds behind McDermott, finishing 21st among non-Division I competitors.

The next three runners for Loras to finish were first-year Rob Howe, junior Chris Higgins, and first-year Ty Wittman who all crossed within four seconds of one another to round out the Duhawks’ scoring.

Finishing sixth and seventh were first-years Steve Loran and Ryan Sheeran.

“I was very happy with the times and how our guys raced as a team,” said coach Bob Schultz. “I’m really proud of our whole team, the weather was ideal and the course was in great shape, which contributed to the very fast times.”

The men also finished in fourth place last year among non-Division I teams and nearly matched their score from a year ago, scoring 319 team points compared to last year’s 318.

McDermott also received Athlete of the Week accolades in the Iowa Conference with his 27th place finish out of 255 runners and the best time posted by a Division III entrant.

The team will travel to Minneapolis this weekend to compete at the Roy Griak Invitational and look to improve on their impressive finish from last year when they took 13th in what is annually one of the nation’s largest cross-country races.

The women also had a successful day at the Catholic Championships, placing 17th overall in the field of 33 Division I, II and III schools. They finished 7th overall among non-Division I schools.

Senior Genna Kinley led the way for the Duhawks for the second meet in a row, placing 51st overall and 14th among non-Division I competitors with a time of 18:53. Sophomore Mary Rector was the other Duhawk to finish in the top 100 in a field of more than 250 runners with a time of 19:14 to finish 86th overall.

Junior Katie Flogel, senior Katie Hemesath and first-year Belky Hilby finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively, for the Duhawks. Junior Maria Kalb and sophomore Kellie Wagner finished sixth and seventh.

“I was happy with our women’s times and how they raced as a team,” said Schultz. “Genna Kinley and Mary Rector both made the top 10 all-time list (for the 5K) at Loras. Katie Flogel and Kellie Wagner also had what could have been their best races as Duhawks.”

Schultz said that Kinley posted the seventh-best 5K time in Loras history, while Rector now has the ninth-best 5K time in school history.

Kinley also received Runner of the Week accolades in the Iowa Conference with her 54th-place finish overall out of 272 runners and placed 14th among non-Division I runners.

All the women saw a considerable amount of time shaved off their finish in comparison to last week’s meet.

“Our women got out better at the start and they also did a much better job racing as a team,” Schultz said. The women also will be in Minneapolis this weekend. Last year, they placed 13th out of 32 as a team dating back to last year. “We did well last year, and our hope is to have a good experience again this year.”

The men and women’s cross country teams left the starting line for the first time this season last Saturday while competing at the Luther All-American Invite in Decorah.

The men took 4th place overall and the women placed 10th in a meet that Coach Bob Schultz had described last week as something to just get everyone’s “feet wet.”

Marlon Torres

Senior Dan McDermott finished 13th this weekend finishing just over 21 minutes at the Luther All-American Invite in Decorah.

“I was very happy that we finished as high as we did,” said Schultz. “Finishing behind 3 of the top 20 teams in the country and beating St. Thomas, a team that is ranked number 30 in the nation and beating Luther, the defending Iowa Conference Champions on their home course.”

Senior Dan McDermott led the charge for the Duhawks finishing 13th overall with a time of 21:04. Junior Austin Steil and first-year Steve Loran finished within four seconds of one another awarding them 21st and 27th overall, respectively.

Junior Chris Higgins (32nd) and first-year Rob Howe (34th) rounded out the scoring for the Duhawks with times of 21:29 and 21:32.

Also finishing in the top 7 for the Duhawks were first-years Ty Wittman (43rd) and Ryan Sheeran (45th). The Duhawks final tally added up to 127 to take a 4th place finish home, 14 points ahead of the 5th place finisher.

“I was really impressed with our freshmen (Loran, Howe, Wittman, and Sheeran) who all made our top 7 in their first collegiate race,” said Schultz. “We have a great group back so for them to do that in their first college cross country meet is very promising.”

The women took home a 10th place finish out of a field of 15, defeating conference rivals Coe and Dubuque.

“Our women got out very conservative, which is what we wanted to do,” said Schultz. “With the race being a bit shorter, at a 5K instead of a 6K, we did not move up as much as we will the second half of the season when we are running a 6K.”

Despite being a little out of their element due to the length of the course, the Duhawks posted some very good finishes at the site of the 2011 IIAC Championships course.

Senior Genna Kinley finished first overall for the Duhawks with a time of 20:17 good enough for a 29th overall finish in the field. Sophomore Mary Rector crossed the finish line 12 seconds later to finish 41st overall.

Finishing 6th and 7th overall for Loras were juniors Maria Kalb and first-year Hallie Martin.

“Genna Kinley ran a strong race, leading our team.  This was her first time running as number 1 for the Duhawks,” said Schultz. “Katie Flogel is much improved from last year and also a couple of our freshmen, Becky Hilby and Hallie Martin had really nice collegiate debuts.”

For the team to continually improve, Coach Schultz believes that the team needs to get out more aggressively and stay together a little longer each race.

On Saturday, the men and women will compete at the National Catholic Championships where the women brought home a 6th place overall finish last year in the 25 team field; and coach Schultz is confident that both teams can move up a place or two in the standings this year.

The men’s cross-country team will kick off the 2011 season this week in Decorah, Iowa at the Luther All-American invitational in the hope of starting off right towards another successful season.

The Duhawks return three of the top runners from last year’s season when they placed second overall in the Iowa Conference tournament. Senior Dan McDermott, juniors Austin Steil and Chris Higgins stack the squad’s resume as they each earned All-Conference and All-Region honors last season. McDermott also qualified individually for Nationals.

The Duhawks added 11 new runners to their roster and coach Bob Schultz expects big things out of the new crop of talent.

“We have quite a few runners who have already shown signs that they will be great college runners. Transfer Greg Adelman and first-years Rob Howe, Steve Loran, Ryan Sheeran and Ty Wittman have all looked very impressive,” said Shultz.

Along with McDermott the Duhawks will look for leadership from seniors Chris Miller, Ben Schmall and Ted Wittman.

Coach Schultz and the Duhawks are setting their sights on winning the Iowa Conference championship and qualifying as a team go to the National Championships this season.Shultz thinks the team need to accomplish some goals first.

“We need to improve on our pack runnin. We did a nice job last year, but we need to do an even better job this season,” said Shultz. “We also need to put the team success above each runners own; selfless running.”

As far as the Luther meet goes, Schultz is just hoping that his team gets their feet under them to be ready for a full season ahead. The course will play as the site of the Iowa Conference championships so the runners will be able to get a good feel for the course for when they visit it later this season with more on the line.

The women’s cross country team is also hoping to build and improve upon their fourth place finish last season in the Iowa Conference tournament and will start off the 2011 season in Decorah, Iowa this weekend. The Duhawks are returning all three of their top runners from last year that includes seniors Katie Hemesath and Genna Kinley and sophomore Mary Rector.

Hemesath will return as the lone all-conference and all-region runner. Coach Bob Schultz believes that Kinley and Rector are poised and ready to compete for those honors as well this fall. The Duhawks have only brought in four new runners this season but the team expects them to make a big impact.

“Becky Hilby and Hallie Martin are two new comers who have been able to run with our top returners early on,” said Schultz.

Kinley and junior Katie Flogel have been named team captains for this season and are expected to provide strong leadership to help the team reach their goals of finishing in the top three in the IIAC Conference tournament as well as a top 8 finish in the NCAA Central Region.

Coach Schultz believes if the team “runs the race” they know they can run at conference. They should be very successful in achieving their goals.

As far as the Luther invitational this weekend, the women, like the men, are just looking to “get their feet wet” and are looking to run a competitive meet but aren’t putting too much into the meet other than learning the course to prepare for the IIAC Championship.

Seniors lined up to see who could outrun President Jim Collins on Sunday morning.

The challenge was a 5-mile race, entitled “Race the Prez.” As a fundraising opportunity for the senior-class gift, President Collins challenged the senior class to race against him. If 50 seniors could beat him in the run, he would donate $2,011 toward the gift.

“We did not end up having 50 people beat President Collins in the 5-mile senior race,” said Senior Class President Michael McCarty. “I don’t think there are 50 people in the county that could beat him to be honest — he’s a fast man!” 

Ashley Slota

Thirty-three seniors accepted President Jim Collins’ challenge to a 5-mile race.

There were 33 participants who were brave enough to give it a shot, and just 12 finished the race ahead of Collins. “It was a hard race; that son-of-a-gun is fast!” said senior Patrick McCarty. “He made me think I was going to win, but it was a false hope.”

Seniors who finished ahead of Collins included Laura Reiger, Dain Leytem, Mike Higgins, Tommy Castle, Kevin O’Brien, Ryan Engleman, Kenzie Murray, Tom Henders and Clark Butler.  Although President Collins won the challenge, he announced to the seniors that they “earned their money” anyway, and he is still going to donate $2011 to the class gift.

“It was really awesome that President Collins was willing to do this event,” said senior Colleen Gannon. “It was really nice of him to donate the money even though we did not have 50 seniors beat him.”

Every senior present at the race received a “Beat the Prez” T-shirt, designed by senior Kristi Olberding. The event was co-sponsored by CAB and the senior class, who provided drinks and snacks for all of the runners.

McCarty emphasized the generosity of President Collins. He said, “On behalf of the senior class, I would like to thank President Collins for his generous donation to our class gift. The race was such a fun event, and it really demonstrates the personal interest the president takes in not only our class, but all of the students at Loras.”

McCarty also mentioned, “I would have run with my classmates, but I was afraid the cost for an ambulance to come when I collapsed after a mile of running would have negatively impacted the event.”

McCarty encourages all of the seniors to follow President Collins’ example by contributing to the class gift.

This year, the class gift is a donation to financial aid for future Duhawks. The slogan for the gift is “Senior for Students,” because it will help future students, the students in the senior class, other Loras alumni, and Loras College on the whole. Not only will the money make tuition more affordable for future students, but a large participation rate will help the college in applying for grants and better standing in various college rankings. This will enable the school to recruit students with higher academic profiles, which makes degrees that much more valuable when applying for jobs.

“Right now we are on our way to our goal of 60 percent participation in the class gift,” said McCarty. “I’m excited to see how we do.” 

Ashley Slota

President Collins showed personal interest toward the senior gift.

Other runners who participated and beat Collins include: first-year Mark Chapman, sophomore Chris Higgins and junior Surya Pandey.

“Even Dewey came out to cheer us on; jumping out from behind trees and splashing us with water along the way,” said senior Kevin O’Brien. “It was a great community-builder for our class and something we’ll remember for years to come.”

Building on a recurring theme, numerous men’s and women’s track-and-field athletes set a flurry of personal records over the weekend.

The Drake Relays in Des Moines kicked off a competition-filled weekend. Colleges and universities from around the nation sent their top athletes to the prestigious Drake Relays, and some of the Duhawks fared well against scholarship athletes.

Loras then hosted several teams at the Loras Open at the Rock Bowl on Saturday night.

Ayush Subedi

First-year Kellie Wagner

“It was great to compete at home on the facility that we practice on all year,” said Coach Bob Schultz. “Many of our kids took advantage of being at home by having their best meet of the season.”

And a “best meet” it was, as four Duhawks upped their personal records, and one even made the Loras record books.

For the women, sophomore pole-vaulter Rachel Kolbeck beat her personal record by 11 inches and junior Genna Kinley won the 10K run with the sixth-fastest time in Loras history. Others who competed well at the Loras Open included sophomores Molly Sieverding and Molly Pilcher, along with junior Kathleen Loftus, who placed second, fourth and sixth in the 100-meter dash, with times of 12.75, 12.96 and 13.07, respectively.

Sieverding also placed fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.47. First-year Mary Rector placed second in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:18.12. First-year Donna Johnston in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 18.16.

First-years Katie Langmeier and Laura Wondra placed third and sixth in the 400-meter hurdles, with times of 66.55 and 70.1, respectively. Junior Kelsey Cruse won the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 12:04.74.

Several Duhawks also performed well in the field events. Langmeier placed third in the high jump and sophomore Caitlin Groeper placed fourth. Junior Bridgett McQuillan placed third in the pole vault. In the long jump, sophomore Kristen Ferch placed fourth and Wondra finished fifth.

Senior Danielle McNally placed third in the discus and fourth in the shot. Senior Heidi Tobin placed second in the discus with a distance of 38.49 meters. Tobin and McNally also placed first and third in the hammer throw. Junior Meggen Elsen placed fourth in the hammer throw with a distance of 44.56 meters.

For the men, junior Chris Miller finished second by eclipsing the two-minute mark in the 800-meter run; his time of 1:59 was a personal record. Sophomore Sam Ross placed sixth in the shot put and set a personal record.

Junior Dan McDermott set a meet record in the 5K with a personal record time of 15:03. McDermott won the race and also recorded the eighth-fastest time in Loras history.

Other men who competed well included senior Dain Leytem, who placed fourth in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:07.31. Sophomore Jeff Schmidt placed first in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 56.27. Senior Mike Higgins won the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:51.19. Senior Steve Neukum placed fifth in the pole vault. First-year Ryan Piche placed fourth and Ross placed fifth in the discus.

Loras now is revving up for the Iowa Conference Championships, which will take place next weekend.

“Most of our athletes are starting to taper for the conference championship,” said Schultz. “So we are looking forward to them competing a little more fresh this weekend, as I am sure our athletes are as well.”