DUBUQUE, Iowa (April 28, 2023) – Second-ranked Loras College women's track & field ran away with a meet victory on Thursday as the Duhawks won the University of Dubuque Relays over four other teams in an abbreviated afternoon meet.

The Duhawks earned 210 points to finish ahead of the hosting Spartans, who totaled 166 points, and the NAIA Viterbo University V-Hawks, who finished with 122 points.

Loras earned eight event victories on the day to help its overall team cause, highlighted by a dominating run for junior De'ja Austin-Cherry winning the title in both the long jump and triple jump events.

Austin-Cherry had a best long jump mark of 5.38 meters while her best triple jump mark cleared 11.59 meters. That triple jump moved Austin-Cherry closer to the bubble in terms of qualifying for the NCAA National Championships, as it currently has her placed 25^th in Division III.

On top of two wins for Austin-Cherry, the Duhawk relay teams displayed some dominance of their own as each the 4x100-meter relay and 4x800-meter relay teams took home victories. The 4x100-meter team just narrowly edged out the team from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to take the win, as Loras finished with a 46.02 time ahead of UWL's 46.23.

That group of Harmony Creasy, Marion Edwards, Stevie Lambe, and Gabrielle Noland ran their way to history as the time is currently the top time in Division III this season and is the fifth-fastest Division III time ever. It's also a program record and an American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) record.

As for the women's 4x800-meter team, their race-winning time of 9:35.44 was over a full minute better than second place as Valerie Herbst, Emily Jackson, Marianne Gleason, and Frankie Chaidez moved into eighth all-time at Loras.

Other wins on the track came from the senior Noland in the 100-meter dash with a 12.14, Herbst in the 1500-meter run with a 4:42.23, and senior Merryl Green in the 400-meter hurdles with a 1:05.51. Herbst's time was a career-best and moved to ninth in program history.

In the field, freshman Julia Klein took the top spot of an event for the first time as a collegian as she bested teammate Sara Hoskins and two other competitors in the high jump. Four athletes all cleared the bar at 1.53 meters, which is Klein's career-high, but only Klein managed the feat on her first attempt.

The Duhawks will have athletes in action at the Drake Relays on Friday-Saturday at Drake University Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.