Mike Higgins
Published: April 9, 2009

Waverly/Dubuque – The Duhawk track and field team made a trip to Waverly, Iowa last weekend to compete against their rival Wartburg College and other division three schools.

Although the meet was a success for most athletes, some members of the team have not been able to compete due to injuries and illnesses. Most of these injured runners have been on the distance team.

“At first I had knee problems during cross country, then I got those fixed, and since then I have had left hip trouble, straining my hip flexor,” said Dan Murphy, a junior distance runner.

“This season has started kind of slow considering I started out with having mono and wasn’t able to compete during the indoor season because of it,” said Lindsey Robinson, a Freshman mid-distance runner.

Most of the sprinters on the team have been staying healthy and ran some personal bests at the Wartburg Invite.

“Overall the Wartburg meet went pretty well. I was pleased with everyone performances, especially with the weather being considered,” said Matt Jones, the Loras sprinter coach. “We’ve only had a few minor bumps and bruises along the way, but nothing real severe.”

The team hosted the Loras open yesterday. The results can be found here.

The team will compete next at the University of Dubuque on April 18th.

Mike Higgins can be reached at michael.higgins@loras.edu

Michael Higgins
Published: March 25, 2009

Atlanta/Orlando - The Loras track and field team made its way down to Orlando, Florida this spring break. The team was able to bond and train under beautiful weather.

“The team, over this week-long trip, really becomes a lot closer and we start meshing more and more as a team,” says jumps and hurdles coach, Geoff Kaiser, “In regards to the training as well, we can do a week’s worth of hard training in good weather and really get ourselves ready for the outdoor season. That puts us at a big advantage to a lot of the other Iowa Conference schools.”

The team’s trip, which involved a track meet at Emory University, was a great overall experience for each individual athlete.

Junior distance runner, Dan Murphy commented, “The training facilities were great, we got to run on the same track as professionals and see what they do every day. The weather was perfect, we couldn’t ask for much more.”

“It’s really a great treat coming off such a cold winter to be able to come down for a whole week and be able to run in 80-degree weather with palm trees around us and to be able to finish off this meet in this type of weather. This is perfect racing conditions and there’s great competition,” said sophomore distance runner, Dain Leytem.

One outstanding performer at the Emory Invite was sophomore, Tara Kilburg, who ran a winning time of four minutes and thirty-nine seconds in the 1500 meter race.

Kilburg stated, “I was really happy with it for my first race. It was a personal record and I almost provisionally qualified for nationals. Just those two things give me a lot of confidence going into the outdoor season.”

Now that the Duhawks are back in Dubuque they will be hosting the Alumni meet this Saturday at the Rock Bowl.

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