July 13, 2022 – The Loras College women's track and field team garnered academic honors on Wednesday from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) as the Duhawks' ten honorees were headlined by Kassie Parker taking home the Indoor Track Scholar Athlete of the Year award and the women's program coming away as the Scholar Team of the Year for both the indoor and outdoor campaigns.

To qualify for All-Academic honors, student-athletes must carry a 3.30 GPA and have finished top-50 on the national descending order list or competed on one of the nation's top-35 relays. To earn team honors, a program must hold a 3.10 GPA or higher based on all student-athletes on the team.

The women's program brought home their first indoor Scholar Team honor and third outdoor nod in program history after sweeping the indoor and outdoor NCAA Division III national titles this past season. Under the direction of head coach Matt Jones '05 and his staff, the Duhawks earned 29 All-America finishes and crowned 15 national champions, including sweeping the 4-by-400-meter relays titles indoors and outdoors and defending the 4-by-100-meter title outdoors for the third-consecutive year. The Duhawks also won the program's first American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Indoor Track and Field Championship before bringing home the program's first indoor national title weeks later.

Parker showed her skills transcend beyond the track with her second-career Scholar Athlete of the Year award. After winning the national title in cross country in the fall, she came out on top in the 3,000 and 5,000-meter runs at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championship, becoming the third woman in Division III history to complete the distance double indoors. She then came back and anchored the Duhawks' distance medley relay with Ellie Osterberger, Merryl Green and Alyssa Pfadenhauer to take runner-up at the championship. The Guttenberg, Iowa native becomes Loras' first Track Scholar Athlete of the Year after she made history as the cross country program's first in the fall. Parker had a tremendous outdoor season as well, earning All-Academic honors for her runner-up finishes in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter runs at the national championship. She cemented herself in the history books as well as the NCAA Division III all-time record holder in the 10,000-meter run running 33:03.61 at the Stanford University Invitational in April. Parker has her bachelor's degree in kinesiology and is completing her master's degree in coaching leadership with a 3.47 GPA.

Joining Parker as All-Academic selections are recent graduates Elayna Bahl '22 and Sam Heavlin '22, seniors Marion Edwards, Stevie Lambe, Alyssa Pfadenhauer and Brianna Renner as well as juniors Taylor Flaig, Sara Hoskins and Kelly Kohlhof. Bahl was an All-American in the 400-meter hurdles outdoors this season in addition to running on the Duhawks' national champion 4-by-400-meter relays both indoors and outdoors and the 4-by-100-meter relay outdoors with Edwards, Pfadenhauer and Lambe. Edwards was also an All-American in the 60-meter dash indoors and Pfadenhauer came away as the national champion in the 400-meter dash at the indoor championship and finished third in the 11th-fastest time in Division III history (54.04). the 4-by-400-meter relay's winning time of 3:41.77 not only shattered the school record but places the quartet sixth in Division III history.

Kolhof ran on the Duhawks' qualifying 4-by-100-meter relay at the outdoor championship, earning All-America honors and Renner finished the outdoor campaign with a school-record performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, lowering her previous time with a mark of 11:03.63. Flaig posted personal bests in the shot put, discus, hammer throw and javelin outdoors and the shot put and weight throw indoors while Hoskins earned All-Region in the high jump with a personal and season-best mark of 1.63 meters. Heavlin capped off her career with a conference title in the 4-by-400-meter relay. She, Hoskins, Flaig and Pfadenhauer all earned their first-career honors while Bahl, Lambe, Edwards, Renner, Kohlhof and Parker collected their second.

Recent graduate Matt Bandy '22, seniors Mike Jasa and Carter Oberfoell, and juniors Ted Kruse and Ryan Harvey all earned the honor. Bandy was a national qualifier and All-Conference performer in the high jump and placed third in the event at the indoor conference championship. Jasa and Oberfoell were both All-Americans in the 800-meter run outdoors, making Loras the only program to have two All-Americans in the event, and ran with Kruse on the Duhawks' 4-by-400-meter relay teams that earned All-America honors indoors and outdoors. Oberfoell also ran with Harvey on the Duhawks' All-American distance medley relay team indoors and Jasa joined them on the 4-by-800-meter relay outdoors that set the NCAA Division III record in the event at the Drake Relays with a time of 7:28.23. Harvey was an All-American in the mile run indoors and a national qualifier in the 1,500-meter run outdoors. He, Jasa, Kruse and Oberfoell each earned their second-career All-Academic honors while Bandy collected his first.

The Duhawks were one of eight of the conference's teams to earn the team honors with a 3.41 GPA and added another high distinction to its historic 2022 seasons.