Duhawks still winless at home

by Drew Brashaw | asst. sports editorWith eyes on earning their first home

victory in program history, the Duhawks hosted a pair of conference opponents this weekend, taking on the Fontbonne Griffins and the Mount St. Joseph Li-ons. Unfortunately for the young Lor-as squad, that elusive first home win couldnt be found, as the Duhawks fell 0-3 against the Griffins on Friday night, and 1-3 against the Lions on Saturday.

Friday nights match against Font-bonne was seen by many as the Du-hawks best opportunity of the season to notch their historic first victory in the AWC, having defeated the Griffins 3-0 on Feb. 27 in Missouri. Despite outstanding offensive performances by a bevy of tal-

ented Loras first-years, Fontbonne was able to flip the script this time around, and took the match in straight sets.

The first set was a back-and-forth af-fair, with both teams enjoying the lead at different times. After being tied at 15, the Griffins began to pull away, and finished on a 7-3 run to win the set 25-20.

Set 2 was even tighter than set 1, with neither team gaining more than a 1-pt. lead until Fontbonne engineered a 7-0 run at 15-all, and eventually took the set by a score of 25-21.

In the third and final set, with the score evened at 19-19, the Griffins were awarded a point for a highly question-able ball-handling error called against first-year Shayne Marquez. Fontbonne would hang on for a 25-22 victory to close out the match.

First-years T.J. Esporas and Dawid Kasprzak led the Loras attack with ca-reer-highs in kills Friday, tallying 15 and 11, respectively. Marquez racked up 30 assists, setting a new team record.

Its a tough pill to swallow, Esporas said. I thought we played a great match offensively, but on defense we werent there, our blocks werent there to close. Its something were going to have to work on.

On Saturday, the Duhawks came out hot against 15th-ranked Mount St. Jo-seph, taking the first four points of the match. Loras led from wire to wire in set 1, winning 25-21. The Lions came out on top of a closely contested 2nd set, 25-22, and ran away with set 3, 25-10.

Set four began as a much more com-petitive frame, featuring six tie scores and five lead changes in the early going. The Lions then created separation with an 8-1 run, and took the fourth and deci-sive set, 25-20.

First-year Jimmy Combs recorded six kills and four blocks against the Lions,

while Esporas contributed six kills, a block and a service ace. First-year Blair Anderson recorded double-digit digs for the seventh time this season, racking up a career-high 17.

The key for us right now is consisten-cy, Anderson said. We have to click on both offense and defense, and its going to come.

Head Coach Jeremy Thornburg echoed Andersons sentiment.

Were going to be scary when every things clicking, were just hoping for that to come pretty soon, he said.

The Duhawks will have one more op-portunity to grab their first home victory when they host Lakeland College for se-nior night on Saturday in the AWC.

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All-AmericanSteger, DeWitt earn All-American honors at NCAA Division III National Championships in Hershey, PA

by Drew Brashaw | asst. sports editorSenior Steven DeWitt and ju-

nior Nick Steger each earned All-American honors over the weekend, after advancing to the semifinal round of the NCAA Di-vision III Championships in Her-shey, PA. DeWitt finished fourth in the 157-pound bracket, and Ste-ger finished fifth at 141.

While both men went to Her-shey with goals of becoming Na-tional Champions, the All-Amer-ican distinction provides fitting punctuation for the outstanding individual seasons turned in by DeWitt and Steger in 2014-15. DeWitt finished the season with an overall record of 35-4, while Steger posted a 28-3 mark.

DeWitt opened his tourna-ment by earning a 13-8 decision in an out-bracket match against Roger Williams Universitys Tyler Herzog. In his second match, DeWitt built an 11-3 lead over Shawn Brewer of Alma College before an injury to Brewer forced the bout to a halt, sending DeWitt through to the quarterfinals. The quarterfi-nal round pitted DeWitt against Tom Gerszewski of UW-Whitewater, in a return bout from the NWCA Duals on Jan. 9, when DeWitt earned an 8-4 deci-sion. On the strength of 3 takedowns and a reversal, DeWitt duplicated the feat on Friday, earning an-other decision over Gerszewski by an identical score, and advancing to Saturdays semifinal round.

In the semis, DeWitt was met by top-seeded and undefeated Nick Carr of Washington and Jeffer-son College. Carr lived up to his billing, scoring 4 takedowns and limiting DeWitts scoring to escape points en route to the 10-3 decision. Carr would go on to be crowned champion at 157 pounds, toppling Wabashs Reece Lefever in the finals.

A familiar face awaited DeWitt in the consola-tion bracket, as he squared off against Wartburgs Drew Waggenhoffer for the third time this season in his first wrestleback. Just like in their two previ-ous meetings, DeWitt came out the victor, scoring a 10-5 decision to complete the trifecta over his Iowa Conference rival.

DeWitt came up short in his 3rd-place match, yielding a 1st-period fall to 3rd-seeded Jorge Lopez of Williams College. The senior closed out his colle-giate career as a 4th-place finisher with All-Amer-ican honors.

Steger began his first trip to Nationals with an opening-round pinfall victory over Jake Sevoca of Williams College. Steger pinned Sevoca at 6:11, after building a comfortable lead with takedowns and back points.

In his quarterfinal match, Steger faced 3rd-seed-ed Jacoby Bergeron of Concordia-Moorhead. After a scoreless 1st period, Steger built 1:27 of riding time to begin the 2nd period before allowing the escape. Steger started the 3rd period from the bot-tom position, but escaped fast enough to preserve his riding time and grind out the 2-1 decision.

The semifinal round at 141 pounds featured an Iowa Conference showdown between Steger and Luthers Drew Van Anrooy. Van Anrooy came out on top of an early 1st-period scramble, and was able to stick Stegers shoulders to the mat for a fall just 41 seconds into the bout, knocking him from the championship bracket.

Steger would drop an 11-5 decision to NYUs Brandon Jones in his first consolation match, but bounced back to earn a 4-1 decision over Layten Bin-ion of North Central (IL) to finish the tournament with a victory and a 5th-place finish.

Im just so proud of both of them, said Head Coach Randy Steward of his two All-Americans. They lost in the semifinals, and youll see a lot of kids in that situation just cash it in and go to sixth place. But they both stepped up and won another match after that, so I think that says a lot about them.

The Duhawks finished the tournament in 15th-place in the overall team standings.

wrestling

Nick Steger

Steven DeWitt

Head for the doorRunners and throwers prepare for outdoor season after a disappointing Indoor Championship meet

by Matthew Marter | sportswriterLast weekend, three Duhawks from the mens and

womens track and field teams got the chance to race at the highest level of competition for their indoor season: the Division III National meet. Although their expecta-tions were much higher than their official results, these Duhawks were proud to get the chance to run at Nationals.

Among them was senior Kyle Ward, who qualified for the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.89, the new school record. In his preliminary heat however, he only ran a time of 6.96. This wasnt fast enough to get him to the finals, but it earned him the 13th place in Division III.

I felt as though there were components of my start that I left out due to my level of excitement at the meet, Ward said.

The excitement was expected, since it was his first trip to the national meet in his four years at Loras.

There was an energy unlike anything I have ever experienced before, Ward said. I was pretty pumped to say the least.

Not only was this Wards last race of the 2015 in-door season, it was also his last collegiate indoor race. He said that his goal was to make finals and earn [All-American honors], but hes placing [his] hopes of qualifying for nationals in [his] outdoor performance.

Ward was optimistic about him and the rest of the team for the outdoor season.

If all goes well, well bringing a flock of Duhawks to New York [for the outdoor Nationals meet] in May.

Junior Zach Frey competed in the 800-meter run on Friday. Due to a slow first half of the race, Frey fin-ished with a time of 1:54.75. This unfortunately was not enough to get Frey into the finals. He missed out of the last spot by 0.25 seconds.

Sophomore Elizabeth Brandenburg also missed out on a spot in the finals in the 60-meter hurdles. She fin-ished 10th in Division III, missing a place in the finals by two-hundredths of a second.

With the snow completely removed from the track, the Duhawks compete alongside a few alumni in an in-ter-squad meet this Saturday, and then begin the out-door season at Knox College in Illinois on March 28.

track & field

photo by MaDDy ColeFirst-year Shayne Marquez sets the ball for fellow first-year Dawid Kasprzak during the Duhawks 0-3 loss to Fontbonne last Friday.

Mount st. Joseph 3, loras 1(21-25, 25-22, 25-11, 25-20)

Loras (3-16, 1-9) ....... AC Kl Dg Ast Michael Kreiser ..................2 3 9 1Dawid Kasprzak .................0 1 0 0Shayne Marquez ................0 0 6 16Jimmy Combs .................... 1 6 2 0TJ Esporas ......................... 1 6 9 0Dylan Ross .........................0 5 0 0Danny Krasich ...................0 0 2 6Blair Anderson ...................0 0 17 1Kyle Zacok ..........................0 3 1 0Totals ..........................4 24 46 24

Fontbonne 3, loras 0(25-20, 25-21, 25-22)

Loras (3-15, 1-8) ....... AC Kl Dg Ast Dawid Kasprzak .................0 11 1 0Kyle Zacok ..........................0 3 1 0Shayne Marquez ................0 0 7 30Jimmy Combs ....................0 5 2 0TJ Esporas .........................0 15 6 0Dylan Ross ......................... 1 7 1 1Danny Krasich ...................0 0 0 7Mitchell Rubino .................0 0 0 0Blair Anderson ...................0 0 14 1Darin Yrigoyen ...................0 0 3 0Michael Kreiser ..................0 2 3 0Totals .......................... 1 43 38 39