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.

Jack Metz contributed to this story

The wrestling team was looking to rally and get a few wins this weekend when they traveled to the University of Wisconsin. While they may have been unsuccessful with a team win, they did have a decent number of individual wins.

The team was faced by two different competitors, the University of Wisconsin Whitewater and Wartburg College. The end result may not have been what they were hoping for, but the coaches found aspects of the teams performance worth praising.

The team was able to put up a few, well earned points. Against Whitewater the team scored a total of eighteen points; however the men from Whitewater ended up besting them by eleven, with a total team score of twenty-nine to our eighteen.

This was one of the better matches for the Duhawks as they posted their best score of the weekend against them. When it came time to compete with Wartburg, the team found a far more challenging opponent. Wartburg was able to defeat the team forty-nine to zero. And yet, although the team was not able to score any points, the time never stopped trying.

In the 149-weight class, Drew Salzman was able to win in decision 2-1 in the tough battle with opponent Brian Lewis. Chris Gansen came out the victor in his 157-weight class, defeating Warhawk opponent Cory Schmidt in a 6-2 decision.

Josh Kirkland defeated his opponent Justin Birschbach by fall at the 4:59 minute mark to give the Duhawks a total of 18 points in the match. Pat Pfantz received the benefit of the forfeit in the 125-weight class.

During the competition between Loras and Wartburg, things did not seem to go our way at all. The team seemed to stumble into a streak of bad luck against Wartburg. They had multiple tech fouls and major calls against them which would put them back a lot. They also had a few forfeits which only set them back further.

In the Duhawks final action of the weekend they took on the host and Division I opponent Wisconsin-Madison where they were able to find victory in one match, while keeping many others close.

Pfantz kept his match in the 125-weight class against Shane McQuade at hand before being defeated in a 9-7 decision. Following Pfantz, Brian Cullen beat his opponent, Austin Hietpas, in the 133-weight class in a 9-5 decision.

Throughout all of this, even though there were no team victories, the team will continue on and will keep training so when the most important matches of the season come they will be ready to claim their victory.

The Loras football team traveled to Storm Lake, Iowa to take on the Buena Vista University Beavers in the final game of the season, losing 28-0 with an injury-depleted roster making the trip across the state.

The loss ends a tough season for the Duhawks and their first under Coach Paul Mierkiewicz, finishing with a 1-9 record overall and winless in the Iowa Conference.

All the scoring in Saturday’s game happened prior to the halftime horn with Buena Vista (2-8, 2-6 IIAC) scoring seven points in the first, followed by 21 in the second quarter.

Buena Vista wasted no time receiving the ball to start the game and driving down the field 77 yards over 12 plays to take the early 7-0 lead on a 5-yard run by running back John Hill.

Loras’ first drive would result in a punt after a rush by Devin Kass and two more by Sean Brennan.

Duhawk senior Eric Meyer came up big on the Beavers second drive, intercepting Bo Darrow’s pass at the Loras 4-yard line. Loras was not able to benefit from the turnover with a mix of rushing from Kass and two passes from Brennan, managing 14 yards.

Buena Vista took advantage of all its possessions in the second quarter converting all three of its drives.

Beavers quarterback Bo Darrow threw second quarter touchdown passes of 10 yards to receiver Larry Marcel and 33 yards to Logan Lehrkamp, respectively, to make it 21-0 before Hill added the second of his two touchdowns on the day, a 14-yard scamper to close out the Beaver scoring at 28-0.

Loras’ best chances came in the second half when Brennan and the Duhawks moved down field thanks to two costly penalties by the Beavers, eventually giving Loras the ball at the Buena Vista 8-yard line. But it ended in a Brennan pass being intercepted on the 4-yard line.

Loras quickly forced the Beavers into a 3-and-out and came up with its second best chance of the quarter when Kass had two rushes of four and 16 yards along with a Brennan pass to receiver Bryce Ewan for 8 yards. The drive came to a halt when Devin Kass fumbled at the Beaver 15-yard line.

Loras was held to 152 yards of total offense; contributions came from Kass, who netted 40 yards on 13 attempts, and Brennan, who completed eight of his 19 passes for 105 yards.

On the other side of the ball the Loras defense allowed 428 yards to the Beaver offense, 149 of those yards coming from running back John Hill.

Junior Brandon Ronan led the team with 13 total tackles, followed by Zach Myers with 12, while junior Mike Canevello and senior Eric Meyer each had one interception on Darrow.

For Loras the game completes the careers for eight seniors who were all recognized last week against Wartburg College during Senior Day — linebacker David Zoeckler, defensive back Eric Meyer, receiver Gavin Kaiser, quarterback Vaughn Gesing, linebacker Zach Myers, tight end Andy Brown, defensive lineman Frank Pereiro, and team manager Kevin Zack. Gesing, Kaiser, and Pereiro were among the injured Duhawks who missed the final game of 2011

After the men’s wrestling team rolled out the mats for the alumni meet, they were ready to start taking on the real competition. There is no better way than to start off at home for your first meet, and that’s exactly what they did.

Performing in front of the home crowd often pumps up the athletes to a higher level of competition, and this meet was no different. The matsmen came out ready to take on anyone that got in their way. Another thing that may have sparked their performance was the fact that for some of the wrestlers, this is their last year to really make it count, and this year gives them to leave their mark on Loras’ history.

With some performances from opponent schools that caught the team off guard, the team lost a few matches early, but there were some glimpses of brilliance from many of the men out on the mats wearing the Loras uniform.

Senior wrestler Pat Pfantz had a very impressive showing on this day. He was able to defeat two opponents in his bracket to make it to the quarter finals, where he was defeated by Jesse Delgado of UI who would go on to win their weight class.

While there were no victories, the team showed that they will be able to perform with the rest of them and even though it wasn’t the best outcome coaches were able to see where the team was at and able to find out what to do for the next tournament all of the opponents that it brings.

The matsmen now look forward to the meet at Elmhurst College and are preparing extremely hard to make the necessary improvements to get them closer to the top of the charts and make their name known among the people in the wrestling world. With sights set high on the season, no one is going to take this meet or any other meet lightly.

This team is led by many upperclassmen and they want this season to be the best. Coaches are always looking for a successful season and they will do whatever they can to make that happen for their team. This year is a year for big things and if they take a little longer to get where they are trying to get then they will be right there for it all. Team sports are called team sports for a reason, it’s the collective effort that makes everything happen.

The men’s basketball season will be underway next week as they square off at home against non-conference opponent Wheaton College. Wheaton got the best of Loras last year in a 79-63 victory but will be facing a much improved Duhawk team this season.

The Duhawks got off to a slow start at the beginning of last year’s season, which was detrimental to their playoff chances. Things eventually began to click with the the second half of the season, but the hole was a bit too deep.

In their last six conference games last season, the Duhawks went 5-1 to make a push for a playoff spot but found themselves on the outside looking in after a four-team tie break scenario denied them a spot. They finished the season on the heels of a three-game win streak.

This year, the Duhawks will be led by five seniors: Brian Gaughan, Jordan Harrelson, Zack Peterson, Tim Kelly and Dan Pawelski. Pawelski finished last season as the team leader in points and rebounds averaging 11.8 points per game and 7.5 rebounds and received second-team all-conference honors for his play.

Head coach Greg Gorton expects “great leadership” out of these five men, and they have all been elected captains. Kelly and Harrelson also return as two-year starters, and are no strangers to putting up big stats.

IIAC Competition looks to be tough this year. The team everyone hopes to beat this year will be Luther who took home the conference championship last season. The Duhawks were 1-1 against Luther last season.

“Our expectations are a conference championship only,” said Gorton. “We learned a lot about ourselves a year ago and have most of the team back. We have the talent to beat any team in our league.”

The women’s basketball team will be returning all players from their conference championship run a year ago where they came within three points of advancing to the title game after falling to the #1 seed and eventual champions, Coe College.

The Duhawks finished the regular season with a 14-11 record overall and an impressive 10-6 record in the conference and ended the season with a five game win streak.

The lone senior on the team is Lindsey LaBadie, who led the team last season in points, rebounds and steals on her way to receiving first-team all-conference honors.

Along with LaBadie, the Duhawks return a strong class of juniors who all made huge impacts last season: Brit Kent (2^nd team all-conference), Melissa Herrmann, Niki Rivera, Brittney Cato, Rachel Kerchefske, and Kelly Rogowski, along with Katie Wheeler who returns from knee surgery after a strong freshman campaign.

The advantage of returning all starters from last year’s team should bode well for Loras.

“Game experience is something you cannot replace and returning our entire roster with the addition of a very talented freshman class will be an asset on game day,” said coach Justin Heinzen.

Coach Heinzen calls the conference championship, “an achievable goal” especially after last season’s’ late run.

“Our league should once again be one of the top conferences in NCAA DIII with Simpson, Coe, and Wartburg being picked as the top tier of our league,” said Heinzen. “But we know we can compete with any of those teams.”

The team’s motto last year was to take it one game at a time. With a developed sense of familiarity and talent, expect the Duhawks to make a strong push for a conference title this season.

On a day that celebrated the senior players’ final game in the Rock Bowl, contributions by senior tight end Andy Brown and a blocked punt in the first quarter set the tone for Loras, but in the end, Wartburg College defeated Loras 23-14.

Before the game Loras recognized eight seniors: linebacker David Zoeckler, defensive back Eric Meyer, receiver Gavin Kaiser, quarterback Vaughn Gesing, linebacker Zach Myers, tight end Andy Brown, defensive lineman Frank Pereiro, and team manager Kevin Zack.

The Loras and Wartburg offenses traded three-and-outs to start the game, but a Nicholas Nunley punt following Loras’ first drive was accompanied by a 15-yard facemask penalty that set up Wartburg’s offense on the Loras 42-yardline giving Wartburg a short field to work with.

Wartburg quarterback Dan Stiefel completed two passes to receiver Donald Miller for 12 and 25 yards to set up a 2-yard run into the end zone by running back Conn Dahlstrom, giving Wartburg the early 7-0 lead.

Loras and Wartburg followed up with drives of eight plays that saw Loras quarterback Sean Brennan complete three straight passes and scamper for 11 yards before taking a hit, forcing back-up quarterback Andy Didio into the game.

With under three minutes left in the first quarter, Didio led a drive lasting three plays before a Nicholas Nuney punt got blocked and recovered by Andrew Putz of Wartburg at the Loras 12-yardline, which was returne to the end zone making the score 14-0, in favor of the Knights.

The second quarter provided limited action as both teams had three drives that resulted in punts before the final possession for the Duhawks with just two minutes left before half.

Two runs netted three yards, and Loras seemed to show a conservative play call for the final minutes, but a 12-yard run from sophomore Javan Aimable set up the Loras offense on the Wartburg side of the field. Sean Brennan followed the play with a 28-yard completion to first-year receiver Nate Even, who then fumbled and recovered his own error to go another nine yards to put Loras at the 11-yardline.

Two more runs by Aimable that totaled eight yards set up a 3-yard touchdown from Sean Brennan to tight end Andy Brown with two seconds left in the half.

Sean Brennan went 17-24 through the air for 159 yards, along with two touchdowns thrown. Nate Even stood out for the receivers with 8 receptions for 73 yards, senior Gavin Kaiser battled injuries throughout the whole game limiting him only to one catch.

The Duhawk’s offense was stagnant in the third quarte. They were able to muster three drives in total with their last one yielding the best results lasting nine plays for 28 yards before punting it back to the Knights.

Wartburg added a field goal in the third quarter and two more field goals in the fourth quarter to make the score 23-7 when Loras got the ball with five minutes to go in the game.

What would be Loras’ final drive began on its own 36 and started with a pass by Brennan that resulted in a pass a interference penalty on Wartburg, moving the ball to the Wartburg 49-yardline. Brennan followed up with another long pass to receiver C.J. Daniels for 31 yards to move the ball into the red zone.

One run and one pass that moved the ball two yards was quickly followed up with a pass from Brennan to the senior tight end Andy Brown who rumbled 16 yards into the end zone to make the score 23-14.

With three minutes left in the game, Tyler Wilker attempted an on-side kick that got through the first line of Knight return specialists and took a generous bounce, but no Duhawk was in the area to recover the ball.

“We’re getting close. We keep getting better, but we are not seeing things in the win column,” said coach Paul Mierkiewicz. “Our guys are playing hard and are well prepared. We are coming to work with the right attitude; we just have to get over the hump and get a win.”

The pair of seniors Eric Meyer and Zach Myers led the defensive charge for the Duhawks with a total of 13 and 9 tackles, respectively. Myers also added a fumble recovery while senior linebacker David Zoeckler contributed seven tackles and recovered one fumble.

Finishing the season as Co-Conference Champs would be something to celebrate for most programs across the country, but for the women’s soccer team, they are not satisfied yet. They will not be satisfied until they are sipping on their lemonade in San Antonio in December, and that journey starts now.

With their lone conference blemish coming as a tie to Wartburg, the Duhawks quite literally blew their competition out of the water. Only allowing four goals in conference play, they know that they are talented, but they feel they still have a lot to prove.

Senior captain Jess Kern is excited for the postseason because she knows that Loras has what it takes.

Leah Sedelle Chapman | My Duhawk

Hillary Wilson dribbles the ball against her Cornell opponent.

Total team play is what has gotten Loras to this point, and that is what they are going to lean on when it comes time for the NCAA Tournament.

After a slow start, the Duhawks seemed to heat up as the temperature went down. In the month of October alone, Loras owned a +34 goal differential, which is certainly a feat to be proud of. But none of that matters now, now it is time to play for the pride and glory that Loras is known for.

“We work for the entire year. It’s the best and most exciting time of the season. Every game we have to play our best and hardest because we never know when it could be the last time that we step out onto the pitch,” said senior captain Kate Young.

Loras took on the Luther College Norse on Wednesday evening with hopes to return to the Conference Championship match once again.

For the women, it’s “go time.”

The name Jay DeMerit might not ring any bells, but if you take a minute to research him, you will find out the story of an athlete who stopped at nothing to fulfill his dream of playing professional soccer.

The path to fulfilling his dream has now been turned into a documentary, “Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story.” It is a moving and inspirational success story that has been picked up for distribution in the U.S. and abroad.

“Rise & Shine” will premiere at the Mindframe Theaters on November 3 at 4:50 p.m. and 6:35 p.m. as well as on November 6 at 3:30 p.m.

The 92-minute film traces the Green Bay, Wisconsin native’s journey from failed tryouts with Major League Soccer through early frustrations in English football’s lowest divisions.

In an inspiring sports tale, DeMerit ultimately triumphs in soccer glory becoming a captain for England’s Watford FC and joining Team USA as a hard-charging, center-midfielder at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Assistant men’s basketball coach Ryan Kane grew up with Jay DeMerit and described Jay as a typical Midwestern, values-to-the-core guy who was not that highly recruited out of high school.

He went to the University of Illinois-Chicago, never getting notoriety even though he was a good player. He went through the years with a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of that.

“We played youth sports together, soccer which he was of course good at, basketball, and baseball. I lived right on the boarder of the district, and we ended up going to rival high schools, so we grew up as competitors following our years playing together in youth,” said Kane. “He was a multi-sport athlete in soccer and basketball, where I played against him.”

By sharing Jay’s unique story and the behind-the-scenes making of the documentary, Kane was the sole reason the independent movie theater, Mindframe, is bringing the movie to Dubuque.

“I put Mindframe in touch with the makers of the movie, and the theater was impressed enough to have it screened. We have used our soccer team’s connections with the young soccer community to get the news out there and promote it,” said Kane. “With the soccer background in the movie, it will speak to soccer fans because they will understand the concept of the story. As Jay says, ‘it’s a story about hope, dreams, team building, and inspiration.’ And so my hope is to get as many people as we can to go and see it.”

The makers of the movie had to turn to fans in order to find funding for Jay’s incredible story to reach the public. Nick Lewis and Ranko Tutulugdizija built a huge groundswell and raised funds through the grassroots crowd-sourcing organization Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com).

Kickstarter is an online fundraiser for musicians, artists, filmmakers and others to fund projects via donations and participation from the public. “Rise and Shine” exceeded a $215,000 goal by almost $10,000 claiming the spot as the top Kickstarter campaign ever for an indie film, even yielding donations from Seth Meyers of “Saturday Night Live” and Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer.

“I think Jay wants the documentary to just promote soccer,” said Kane. “For someone who has dedicated his life to and loves the game, I think he just wants to make the sport more popular around America.”

The wrestling season is quickly approaching, and the wrestlers are already rolling out the mats and taking to them for their early morning practices.

Coach Randy Steward and company are preparing for yet another season. With seven seniors and six juniors, this is an experienced team.

“There will be several emerging wrestlers for this year’s team. Junior Matt Holmes at 133 and sophomore Stephan Birt at 174 are both returning NCAA Qualifiers and will be leaders on the mat,” said Steward. “I am personally looking for seniors Chris Gansen, Mitch Gansen, Pat Pfantz, and Josh Kirkland to emerge and be competitive on a national level.”

With so many returning men to the team, the year looks bright. Their successes last season were good, but now Steward is looking for even more from his experienced team. His philosophy: get everyone to realize that they are NCAA qualifying prospects.

“We had a strong end of the season last year, and my goal is to keep that momentum going and begin the season right where we left off. Expectations are to qualify all 10 weight classes for the NCAA Tournament and bring home a team trophy,” said Steward. “While Rome wasn’t built in a day, I have high expectations and want every kid in our practice room to want to be an NCAA Champion.”

This may not be an easy task, but they’re off to a good start. They have had two-a-days since Oct. 8, and they are going for “volume,” according to Steward.

This week the wrestlers will back off from the two-a-days, but they will be still practicing hard, Steward said.

With a large group of upperclassmen, the only thing that comes to mind when you continue having big numbers is chemistry- between the wrestlers and coaches and among the wrestlers themselves. This connection is important to the team, and the coaches want to continue this team chemistry with a little bit of recruiting.

“Looking back over 19 years, our best teams had one thing in common — a large senior class. Our goal as a staff from this day forward is to recruit well; recruit kids that are a good fit for our wrestling program and more importantly a good fit for Loras,” said Steward. “Adding to that is making sure that all kids are having a good experience both on and off the mat which will ensure retention and allow us to have large senior classes.”

With all eyes looking forward to another great season, it’s hard to imagine that it could be anything but. To show their readiness, the team had their alumni match, where they were able to show what they’re made of against some of the past wrestlers who proved their prowess during their four years at Loras.

With their opening match held here at Loras coming up, the team is getting ready with hard work and mental preparations. This season looks to be a promising one.