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

Apr. 9, 2022 – The No. 4-ranked Loras College women's track and field team took home the team title at the University of Dubuque Open, hosted by the No. 20-ranked Spartans, on Saturday, led by the fastest time in Division III this season by the 4-by-400-meter relay, a huge leap for De'ja Austin-Cherry in the triple jump and multiple nationally-ranked performances.

The 4-by-400-meter relay team of Stevie Lambe, Marion Edwards, Elayna Bahl and Alyssa Pfadenhauer ran together for the first time outdoors after winning the national title in the event indoors with a time of 3:46.01, taking a four-second lead in Division III this season. The 4-by-100-meter relay team of Emalee Ryder, Kelly Kohlhof, Brooke Kruse and Harmony Creasy also saw success, posting a winning time of 49.48.

Kassie Parker dropped down in distance and won the 1,500-meter run, running 4:34.62 to rank fifth nationally and move up to No. 3 on Loras' all-time list. Ellie Osterberger finished second in 4:45.58, just off her personal best in the event. Bahl added a win in the 100-meter hurdles, running 14.91 seconds and Grace Alley finished third in 16.24. Bahl also led a 1-2-3 finish in the 400-meter hurdles, running 1:02.19 to rank second in the nation followed by Merryl Green running 1:07.61 and Sam Heavlin in third with a time of 1:09.29. Pfadenhauer, the national champion in the event indoors and runner-up outdoors, had an excellent debut in the 400-meter dash outdoors with a time of 55.60, sitting second in the nation.

Kohlhof added a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash, running 12.71, and finished third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.44. Erin Phelan finished second in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 12:17.15.

In the field events, Taylor Flaig went 46.21 meters in the hammer throw to finish second, and added another second-place finish in the discus with a toss of 40.57 meters, good for 16th in Division III. Kayla Weatherly threw 37.26 meters to finish third in the event. Creasy had another strong meet in the jumps, leaping 5.37 meters to place second in the long jump and Austin-Cherry finished third with a jump of 5.13 meters before the freshman popped off an 11.71 meters leap in the triple jump which sits fourth on Loras' all-time list and seventh in Division III this season. Alley won the high jump, clearing 1.60 meters.

The Duhawks scored 237 points, topping Dubuque with 205 and Cornell College in third with 74 points.

Loras gets set to host the Easter Midweek Meet on Wednesday, Apr. 13 and will send its distance cohort to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville the next day for a meet on Apr. 14.