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

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

Michael Higgins
Published: February 18, 2009

PLATTEVILLE –This past weekend the fifteenth ranked men and the twenty-sixth ranked women track teams were in Platteville, Wisconsin for the Nike Impact Sports Invite.

The Loras Track and Field team may be nearing the finish line of their indoor season, but they are not slowing down, with conference right around the corner several men and women boasted their best marks last Saturday.

Head Coach Bob Shultz was very pleased with his team’s performance.

“I think it was a good meet, I know Brian Westemeier had a personal best in the shot put,” said Shultz.

“Obviously our women did awesome in the distance medley relay qualified for nationals broke the school record third fastest time in the country, Mary Bridget Corken ran an indoor personal best in the half and was first place in that we had a lot of personal bests today so it was a good meet,” said Shultz.

One outstanding middle distance runner on the team is junior, Hannah Weiss.

“My biggest achievement so far would probably be qualifying for the 800 for nationals and also the distance medley relay,” said Weiss

Another member of the Loras track team who is having a stand out season is Barb Kremer, currently ranked fifth in the nation in the fifty five meter hurdles.

“My achievement personally is that I qualified for the national meet which was one of my big goals, another goal was to run an 8.40 and I accomplished that today by running an 8.34,” says Kremer.

With conference only two weeks away Coach Schultz holds high expectations for both the men and women teams.

“Well the way things are looking right now I think both teams will be able to reach their goals, the guys’ goal is to win, I think we got a good shot at that, and the women’s goal is top three and I really think they have a shot at finishing in the top two,” says Schultz.

The Loras track and field team has one last indoor meet down the street at the University of Dubuque this weekend.

SportsZONE will bring you all of the Duhawk’s results after their conference meet at Wartburg on February twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth.

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