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

May 14, 2022 – A tightly-contested meet from start to finish among some of the best teams in Division III, the No. 2 Loras College women's track and field team finished as the 2022 American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) runners-up on Saturday at the conference championship as the hosts saw behind 17 All-Conference honors, 13 champions and marquee performances by Grace Alley and Alyssa Pfadenhauer who collected the conference's Track and Field MVP honors.

Alley started the day off with a conference title in the heptathlon, scoring 4,550 and securing five events wins. She won the 100-meter hurdles (15.53), went 1.65 meters in the high jump, threw 11.79 meters in the shot put and ran 26.62 seconds in the 200-meter dash. She went 5.33 meters in the long jump for her fifth win and threw 32.20 in the javelin to place second. She capped off her two-days of competition with a 2:54.14 in the 800-meter run. Alley continued to dominate with a busy start in her open events with an All-Conference performance in the long jump, jumping 5.57 meters, and won the high jump in electric fashion, clearing 1.74 meters to set the school record and the No. 2 mark in Division III this season. She finished third in the triple jump to start off Saturday's competition with a jump of 11.65 meters, earning the league's highest honor for the second-straight outdoor season and third time in her career following her 2022 Indoor Field MVP accolades. Alley has won the past three Field MVP awards in as many championships.

Pfadenhauer also pulled a busy schedule for the championship, helping the Duhawks win the 4-by-100-meter relay along with Elayna Bahl, Stevie Lambe and Kelly Kohlhof. The quartet ran 46.99, the sixth-fastest time in program history, to take the title. Pfadenhauer than won the 400-meter dash with a facility-record time of 54.98, leading Lambe across the line to finish second and earn All-Conference honors with a time of 57.41, ranking 15th in the nation. She also went under the facility record in the 200-meter dash, running 24.13 to clock the second-fastest time in Division III this season and in school history and taking second. Marion Edwards joined her as an All-Conference honoree with the 12th-fastest time in Division III this season, running 24.52. Pfadenhauer then closed out the meet as the anchor for the 4-by-400-meter relay team with Sam Heavlin, Bahl and Green to win the race in 3:51.52, good for tenth all-time. Pfadenhauer's dominant performance earned her her second-career MVP honor after she was named the Co-Track MVP at the indoor championship this season.

The favorite in both events, Kassie Parker opened her weekend with a win in the 10,000-meter run, running 38:47.47 and added another win in the 5,000-meter run, running away from the field to win by 30 seconds in 17:31.42. She also put on a show at a shorter distance and finished second in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:39.11, earning All-Conference honors.

Bahl swept the hurdles in her final outdoor championship of her career, winning the 100-meter hurdles in 14.56 and taking the 400-meter hurdles in 1:02.46. Green added a third-place finish in the event, running 1:03.84 and moving into seventh all-time. De'ja Austin-Cherry finished second in the triple jump with a leap of 11.68 meters and the 4-by-800-meter relay of Kaylee Osterberger, Marianne Gleason, Alexis Riesberg and Frankie Chaidez placed third in the event, running 9:30.50 for the fourth fastest time in program history. Osterberger also finished third in the 800-meter run for All-Conference honors, running 2:19.94.
No. 7 Wartburg College won the team title with 231 points while Loras tallied 224 and No. 15 University of Dubuque finished third with 109 points.

The Duhawks will compete at the last chance meets in the coming week, heading to Augustana College and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on Thursday, Apr. 19 for the final push to secure NCAA Division III National Championship qualifying marks.