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

Mar. 27, 2021 – After nearly 700 days since the last outdoor meet, the Loras College men's track and field team put on a display in the 3,000-meter run on Saturday at the Elmhurst University Earlybird Invitational as Luke Guttormson became the program's record holder in the event and six other Duhawks etched their names in the top-ten as well, helping Loras to win the team title at the season opener. Loras also saw its field competitors kick off the season at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

Guttormson led the charge in the 3,000-meter run with a winning time of 8:30.09, improving on the previous record by more than ten seconds. Freshman Ryan Harvey became the second-fastest runner in program history, also beating the previous record with a time of 8:40.22 and Wyatt Kelly finished third in the race to rank fifth all-time (8:44.66). In his first collegiate outdoor race, Will Yasdick moved into No. 6 all-time (8:47.30) while Joey Schultz (8:53.57) and Drew Brase (8:56.40) became the seventh and eighth runners on the all-time list, respectively. Seth Corrigan made his way into the top-ten as well with his time of 8:59.33.

Loras also saw first-place performances by Shamari Scott in the 400-meter hurdles (55.34) and both the 4-by-100-meter relay of Josh Smith, Jake Willkomm, Carson Vaske and Nate Sielaff (42.73) and the 4-by-400-meter relay of Vaske, Scott, Ted Kruse, and Conor Otting (3:23.91). Sielaff added a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash as well with a time of 11.38 seconds followed by Raymond Venditti in third (11.48 seconds) while Willkomm added a runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash (22.89) and Smith was second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.26 ahead of Otting in third (51.01). Chris Guise finished second in the 800-meter run (2:00.27) and Cole Conklin-Little finished second in the 1,500-meter run (4:08.81) ahead of Carlo Dannenfelser in third (4:13.33).

In the field events, Alex Martens posted a second-place finish in the high jump with a leap of 1.87 meters and Logan Jones placed third in the pole vault, clearing 3.82 meters. Derik Bunten finished second in his first meet of his collegiate career in triple jump (13.08 meters) and Holden Murphy added a third-place finish in the discus with a throw of 41.84 meters. Ryan Rogers was the runner-up in the javelin, throwing a distance of 43.83 meters.

The Duhawks look to land more competitors on the all-time list on their home track on Thursday, Arp.  1 as Loras hosts the Loras Easter Midweek Invitational. Field events begin at 11 A.M with running events starting at 12:30 P.M.