Contact: Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243

Written by: Kyler Donovan, Athletic Communications Student Assistant

Dec. 6, 2021 – The Loras College men's and women's swimming and diving teams hit the road for Minnesota this past weekend to compete in the Rochester Invitational. The Duhawks competed against both Division I and Division II two schools as well as other Division III opponents.

The three-day meet kicked off on Friday, Dec. 3, seeing five Duhawk relay teams qualify for the finals including two women's team for the 200 yard medley relay, and three on the men's side. The men earned six points during the event with Kevin McMillan, Brian Day, Noah James, and Brad LaGrange earning four. Jon Broas, Payton Markowski, Zach Nelson, and Austin Jorgensen earned two points for their finish. The men also participated in the 800 yard freestyle relay finals, earning a total of six points through the efforts of Jorgensen, Nelson, McMillan, and LaGrange with four as well as Day, Broas, Christopher Grunke, and James with two.

On Saturday, the Duhawks competed in more relay finals including the men's and women's 200 yard freestyle and the men's and women's 400 yard medley relay. The women saw two teams compete the 200 yard freestyle consisting of Ann Quinn, Nina Schiro, Molly Strohmeyer, and Kinsey Bogen as well as Taylor Hrabak, Carter Tanner, Grace VanPetten, and Kendra Sirianni. The men again scored six points through McMillan, LaGrange, Jorgensen, and Charles Holmes with four and Day, Nelson, James, and Markowski with two. The women had two competing teams in the finals of the 400 yard medley relay, with the men having three, again earning a total of six points. Nelson and Grunke also competed in the 400 yard IM for the men, finishing with times of 4:45.51 and 5:09.81, respectively. The Duhawks closed out Saturday with diving, seeing Gannon Harrington and Nicholas Schlader combined to earn three points for the Duhawks with their performance.

The Duhawks wrapped up the meet on Sunday competing in multiple finals. Schiro started off for the women with a time of 2:16.36 in the women's 200 yard backstroke. For the men, McMillan, Broas, and Cole Rabedeaux finished in the top 25. LaGrange finished the men's 100 yard freestyle with a time of 49.74, placing him fourth in his group. In the women's 200 yard breaststroke, Artie Kerchmar finished with a time of 2:48.10. On the men's side, four Duhawks competed in the finals including Day, Markowski, Holmes, and Spencer Kakacek. Elli Stine was the sole Duhawk for the women to compete in the 100 yard IM. LaGrange, McMillan, James, and Rabedeaux competed for the men with LaGrange leading the way with a time of 57.03. Grunke finished the 200 yard butterfly for the men with a time of 2:16.43. The Duhawks closed out the meet with long distance races with both Hrabak and Jorgensen competing in the 1650 yard freestyle for the women and men.

Loras finished the meet with a combined 29 points, racing against Division I and II schools led by University of Nebraska Omaha and St. Cloud State University.

The Duhawks are back at San Jose Pool on Jan. 8, 2022 as they play host to North Central College in their first dual meet of the new year. The meet is scheduled to begin at 1:00 PM