AURORA, Ill. (Jan. 27, 2023) – Loras College's second-ranked men's track and field team is shaking things up this weekend with events on both Friday and Saturday, but that wasn't enough to deter the Duhawks as they took home first place out of 17 teams at the Aurora University Grand Prix on Friday.

On top of a victory in the 4x400-meter race in the meet finale, four Duhawks came home with individual events victories while the team earned a total of 18 top-10 finishes to claim the meet title. Loras accumulated 103 points to clear North Central College in second place with 76.5 points.

Senior distance runner Ryan Harvey helped lead the charge for the Duhawks as he ran away with the 3000-meter run with his time of 8:27.84, creating nearly a four-second gap to North Central's Thomas Rohr in second place. Harvey's time sets a new program record, improving on his own 8:21.81 time from the 2021 season.

Behind Harvey in the 3k was senior Wyatt Kelly (3^rd – 8:32.09), junior Carlo Dannenfelser (4^th – 8:34.03), and sophomore Jacob Belha (8^th – 8:39.99) as that trio rose to fourth, fifth, and 10^th on Loras' all-time list, respectively.

Senior sprinter Josh Smith was victorious in the 60-meter dash with a finals time of 6.91 as he edged out Chicago State's LaVell Patterson at the line. Smith's prelim time of 6.86 was also the fastest time run on Friday. In addition to his win, he also placed second in the 200-meter dash with a 22.02.

In the field, senior high jumper Matt Bandy claimed the top spot in that event with a 1.93-meter mark that he cleared on his second attempt. In four high jump events this season, Bandy has two victories and two runner-up finishes.

Bandy was joined in the win column by junior long jumper Derik Bunten as he claimed yet another event victory. His fourth long jump win in as many meets this season came by way of a 6.78-meter mark on Friday that was nearly a full 0.2 meters better than second place.

This long jump win also came in a long jump field that featured 45 student-athletes while Bunten also took home fourth place in the triple jump event.

The 4x400-meter relay team finished off the meet with a dominating victory as Smith, junior Ted Kruse, senior Carter Oberfoell, and freshman Matthew Marcum clocked a 3:18:80 to put a three-second gap between themselves and the runners-up from the University of Chicago.

Select Duhawks athletes will also be competing on Saturday, Jan. 28, at the University of Dubuque's Spartans Invite starting at 10:30 A.M. at the A.Y. McDonald Indoor Track.