The men’s cross country team qualified for Nationals after placing 4^th overall at the NCAA Division III Central Region Championships on Saturday.

The Duhawks finished the meet with an overall team score of 141 to put them eight places behind the third place finishers, Hamline University, and 20 places in front of conference foe, Luther College, as they took home a fourth place finish.

Led by Senior Dan McDermott, the Duhawks placed all five runners inside the top-45 of the field. McDermott, who has led the charge for the men all season, finished 9^th place overall with a time of 25:43. Sophomore Jerry Olp crossed the finish line next for the Duhawks with a time of 25:56 good enough for 21^st place. Junior Austin Steil (28^th) finished with a time of 26:10 and was followed closely by the last two scoring runners: freshman Rob Howe (26:21) and freshman Steve Loran (26:29) who finished 38^th and 45^th overall respectively.

“This is only the 2^nd men’s team in school history to advance to the National Championships,” said head coach Bob Schultz. “They worked so hard this season and I couldn’t be happier for them.”

The team has high hopes for Nationals and will look to build on their already impressive resume they have put together this season.

“We are looking to finish higher than we are ranked and to shoot for a top-15 finish, which is the highest Loras finish ever at the National Championships,” said Schultz.

The women’s cross country team also left Waverly, Iowa on Saturday with a top-ten finish as they finished 9^th out of 27 teams. The Duhawks placed five runners inside the top-85 and ousted Grinnel College by seven places to earn 9^th place honors.

Senior Genna Kinley led the way for the Duhawks with a 20^th overall finish and a time of 22:47. Sophomore Mary Rector finished 31^st overall with a time of 23:13 and Junior Katie Flogel finished 41^st overall with a time of 23:32. Rounding out the scoring for Loras was senior Katie Hemesath (77^th, 24:12) and Sophomore Kellie Wagner (84^th, 24:29). The 9^th place finish does not qualify the Duhawks for the National meet; however, Kinley will represent the team as an individual at the National Championships for placing in the top 20.

“Making it to Nationals is something I never imagined was possible for me,” said Kinley, “I’m so honored to represent my team.”

The 9^th place finish marks the end of a cross country season for the women which included: six top ten finishes and one first-place finish in seven races.

“My teammates have shown such growth this season and we owe that to Bob for his consistent and sensible training and to our assistant coach Mary Bridget Corken for pushing us every step of the way and never giving up on us,” said Kinley.

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.”

The rest of the Duhawks were not too far behind McDermott. Sophomore Jerry Olp finished fifth overall with a time of 25:43 and junior Austin Steil finished 13th overall with a time of 25:57 to join McDermott and Olp on the All-Conference podium as the top 15 finishers.

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 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.

The next three runners to cross the finish line for the Duhawks all finished within three seconds of one another, first-year Steve Loran finished with a time of 26:46 good enough for 35th overall, junior Austin Steil crossed a mere 1.5 seconds later and junior Chris Higgins took 39th place with a time of 26:49.

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 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.”

The men made a splash placing 4th place overall in a 20 team race that included some very tough competition.

“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.

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.

“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.”

 

It was another record breaking week last Friday as the Duhawks ran their way into the Loras books.

Unfortunately the competition was not the greatest, and the Loras team may have done even better if the weather cooperated.

The snow, and rain kept everyone at the meet from reaching their top performance.

“The competition would have been great, but the weather kept most everyone from achieving any kind of success,” said coach Bob Schultz.

The women’s team had several records set despite the weather. Senior Tara Kilburg ran the 1500-meter run in 4:38, the sixth fastest time in Loras history. This time was good enough to finish in third place.

Junior Katie Hemesath finished the 3000-meter steeplechase in 11:44 which is the fastest time in school history. She also placed third.

First-year Emily Roth also made the record books with a height of 8’9” in the pole vault. She placed eighth, with the eighth best value in Loras history. Junior Bridget McQuillan placed second in the pole vault with a height of 10’3”.

Sophomore Kristen Ferch placed fifth in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump with distances of 5’25” and 10’17” respectively.

Seniors Heidi Tobin and Danielle McNally along with first-year Meggen Elsen placed second, third and fourth, respectively, in the hammer throw. Their scores were 46’36”, 45’51” and 44’68” respectively.

The men’s team joined in on the record breaking as well. Junior Dan McDermott placed tenth in the 10k, with a time of 31:40 the eighth best in Loras history. First-year Payne Finn placed third in the long jump with a distance of 21’1”.

Both Loras teams have been running well this season. Schultz enjoys seeing his aim for a goal and be able to carry through with it.

“[I enjoy] watching the kids work really hard for something and then achieving it,” he said.

The next meet for Loras is the Drake Relays on Apr. 28-30. After the Drake Relays the Duhawks rush back to the Rock Bowl for the Loras Open on Apr. 30.

Amazingly enough, some track-and-field athletes have qualified for the outdoor national meet — just two weeks into the outdoor season.

Last weekend, the team traveled to University of Wisconsin-Platteville, where hundreds of athletes competed but no team scores were kept.

Nonetheless, there were plenty of individual performances that made headlines.

Several Duhawks qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships in late May. Even more athletes recorded some of the best performances in Loras history.

“This was another great meet for us,” said Coach Bob Schultz. “We had a lot of new additions to (Loras’) top-10 all-time list and tons of personal records.”

The women performed outstandingly sending three to nationals. Senior Laura Rieger, who set the all-time school record and qualified for Nationals in the 800-meter run, with a time of 2:11.41. Rieger already is an All-American at that distance after placing at the national indoor meet a month ago.

Senior Heidi Tobin qualified for nationals in the hammer throw with a distance of 49.78 meters, which was good enough for fifth place.

Senior Danielle McNally also qualified for nationals in the shot put, throwing a distance of 12.88 meters, finishing fifth. McNally also placed fourth in the discus throw with a distance of 40.26 meters.

Other women who were top performers last weekend are as follows: first-year Katie Langmeier, who placed fourth in the high jump with a height of 1.62 meters; junior Bridget McQuillan, who placed fourth in the pole vault with a height of 3.10 meters and sophomore Kirsten Ferch, who placed fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 10.76 meters.

The men also had a couple of top performers. Junior Ryan Seymour placed fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.89. Sophomore Tim Derr ran the 110-meter hurdles in 15.40, which was good enough for seventh place.

“I am excited about how well many of our young athletes are doing,” said Schultz. “It makes the future appear to be very bright.”

Schultz has set his team goals high, with hopes that the women place in the top-2 in the Iowa Conference and that the men place in the top-3. Obviously no one can rest on their laurels this early in the outdoor season.

“My hope is that with so many people having good meets, this will be contagious for their teammates and we get more and more people stepping it up each week,” said Schultz.

The Duhawks will travel to Augustana this weekend in hopes to continue to improve while focusing on new and current goals.

 

The Duhawks traveled to Wartburg to kick off the outdoor track-and-field season

The Wartburg Select was an important meet for Loras, as three conference teams were competing: Wartburg, Simpson and University of Dubuque.

The women’s track-and-field team did fared well with several individuals placing in the top ten in their events.

“(Senior) Tara Kilburg, and (juniors) Katie Hemesath and Genna Kinley all stood out in their events,” said coach Bob Schultz. “As for field events, (seniors) Heidi Tobin, Danielle McNally and (first-year) Katie Langmeier.”

Schultz was proud to see these women step up early in the outdoor season, as they all turned in good results.

Kilburg competed in the 1,500-meter run and placed third with a time of 4:41.96. Hemesath placed second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:52.28.

Kinley placed 10th in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:56.60. This time was enough to beat out a conference rival, Kristen Young from Wartburg, who fell behind Kinley with a time of 19:01.64.

Tobin placed eighth in the discus, beating out Wartburg opponent Rachel Andresen, and fifth in the hammer, with distances of 38.28 meters and 48.38 meters, respectively.

McNally placed second in the shot put with a distance of 12.73 meters and sixth in the discus and ninth in the hammer throw, beating University of Dubuque opponent Dana Thompson in both with distances of 39.21 meters and 44.62 meters, respectively.

Langmeier tied for second in the high jump with a height of 1.60 meters.

The men’s team did equally as impressive on their first outdoor meet of the season.

“(Juniors) Dan McDermott and Mike Roth and (first-years) Chris Higgins and Josh Goerdt all stood out in their events,” Schultz said.

McDermott competed in the 5,000-meter run, placing fifth, and beating Wartburg opponent Jon Stover with a time of 15:14.14.

Higgins ran in the 1,500-meter run, placing eighth, and beating Wartburg rival Parker Comentino with a time of 4:02.37. Goerdt placed fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.47. Roth placed fourth in the long jump with a distance of 6.83 meters.

Schultz’s youthful men’s team has shown its worth with two first-years placing in the top ten in their events, while the women’s team has shown strength in its youth as well, as Langmeier tied for second in her event.

“We want to build off of this meet and continue to improve,” said Schultz.

The Duhawks compete in their next meet Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.