Contact: Emily Adlfinger, Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970

Dec. 11, 2021 – The Loras College men's track and field team made a statement in its season-opener on Saturday at the Dubuque Championships, hosted by the University of Dubuque, as the Duhawks won the Battle of the Bluff team title thanks to three school-record performances by Mike Jasa, Ryan Harvey and Ryan Rogers and four of Division III's leading marks.

Rogers, a returning All-American in the decathlon outdoors, opened competition for Loras on Friday in the first day of two days of the heptathlon, winning five of the seven events to score 5,272 points to put him atop the Division III leaderboard and improve on his previous program record by more than 200 points. His clearance of 4.84 meters in the pole vault is the second-best jump in Division III this season and his long jump of 6.91 meters puts him 13th.

In the second school-record performance for Saturday, defending outdoor NCAA Division III national champion Jasa improved on his 800-meter record with the current fastest time in Division III (1:50.13), taking one second off his previous best. Carter Oberfoell had a fantastic race as well with a personal-best run of 1:52.77, moving him up to No. 2 on Loras' all-time list. Harvey, coming off a spectacular cross country season, smashed the school record in the mile run which was previously held by Chris Schaefer back in 1998, running 4:10.50 to lead Division III and finish 26 seconds ahead of the next runner. The sophomore had not been on the program's top-ten list before taking hold of the all-time best time.

The Duhawks added the nation's fastest time in the final event of the meet, as Josh Smith, Ted Kruse, Oberfoell and Jasa won the 4-by-400-meter relay in a time of 3:20.67.

Loras had a multitude of impressive finishes across events on Saturday with De'Andre Klein finishing third in the 60-meter dash (7.08) to rank seventh all-time and Doyle Carroll's time of 7.10 was good for fourth place and sits eighth on the program's top-ten list. Smith's time of 6.88 in the prelims puts him at No. 7 in Division III and his runner-up performance in the 200-meter dash (22.27) ranks eighth in the nation. Kruse finished second in the 400-meter dash (50.56) and ranks 19th nationally while Matt Bandy's winning jump of 1.93 meters in the high jump is good for 17th in Division III. Raymond Venditti finished third in the high jump (1.88 meters) and won the pole vault, clearing 3.82 meters. Logan Jones also added a top-three finish in the event, clearing 3.67 meters to tie for second.

Derik Bunten and Carroll took the top-two spots in the long jump with Bunten jumping 6.86 meters to rank tenth all-time for the Duhawks and Carroll went 6.49 meters. Bunten also finished third in the triple jump (13.40 meters).

In the throwing events, Zac Couture won the shot put with a throw of 14.79 meters, ranking him 14th nationally, and Holden Murphy took second with a throw of 14.13 meters. Neal Eckhoff finished second in the weight throw (16.28 meters) and sits 19th on the national list while Murphy took a third-place finish, throwing 15.52 meters.

Loras edged out the host Spartans to take the Battle of the Bluff title with 74 points to Dubuque's 67 while Clarke University scored three points.

The Duhawks resume competition in the new year, traveling to Davenport, Iowa to St. Ambrose University on Jan. 15.