Michael Higgins
Published: April 22, 2009

DUBUQUE -The Loras track and field team is off to another great start in the outdoor season SportsZone caught up with one athlete who has something new to contribute.

Three Thousand meters, thirty-five hurdles, including six water barriers was the challenge in front of senior middle distance runner Joey Hetland last Saturday at the University of Dubuque Open.

“I’ve never been able to run at conference because we had a pretty stacked mid-distance team the four years that I have been here so I wanted to run the steeplechase in order to do that,” said Joey.

“He was looking for events that weren’t terribly deep in where he could contribute and steeplechase is one of them and he’s a mid distance guy so for an eight hundred runner to say hey I want to do the steeplechase that is quite a step and I’m just proud of him. I think a lot of people take that for granted just running at the conference championship and I think for Joey that would be the icing on the cake for his career,” said track and field coach Bob Schultz.

Moving up in distance from the eight-hundred meter and mile races, Joey has been able to use his cross country experience to adjust. The hurdles were another story.

“I was really nervous about the water pit, I’ve never jumped into one of those before so once I got through those I knew I was alright, I wanted to finish the race after that,” said Joey.

Joey and other Duhawks will be competeing here at the Loras Open this weekend. The event starts at ten o’clock on Saturday morning.

Michael Higgins can be contacted at Michael.Higgins@loras.edu