How Did the Duhawks Do It? The Making of the Loras College Dynasty
Although “national champions” and “Loras women’s track and field team” seem almost synonymous these days, all dynasties have a beginning. Still, with four consecutive team NCAA titles under their belt, it’s hard to imagine a time when the regal purple, gold, and white of Loras’ uniforms didn’t strike fear in the heart of all Division 3 competitors.
Loras College is a small liberal arts college tucked just east of the Mississippi River, on the westernmost edge of Iowa and a stone’s throw from the borders of Illinois and Wisconsin. Despite its size, just 1,600 undergraduates, the school has a solid and proud alumni base.
Head Coach Matt Jones understands the hype. He is, after all, a Loras alum (‘05) and two-time All-American himself.
“I've been in their shoes, I've been in these buildings, I've worked out on this track,” Jones said in a recent D3GD interview.
After graduating, Jones spent seven seasons working under head coach Bob Schultz before becoming the head of the program himself in 2013. The 2021-2022 season marked his 16th year coaching at Loras, but he still remembers the grind of his early days in coaching.
“It was tough to recruit, trying to find my footing. It was a tough sales pitch to recruits when most of the high schools in Iowa could run faster than what we were running in the relays and individual events,” Jones said.
The team held its own in the competitive American River Conference, placing consistently in the top three at championships between 2013 and 2019. Only three Loras women reached the national stage to earn All-American honors: Bree Powers (‘16) in the 200m dash, Elizabeth Brandenburg (‘17), a five-time All-American in the pole vault, and Audrey Miller (‘19), a four-time All-American in the 3k, 5k, and 10k.
“It took some time to find some of the right kids and revamp the culture a little bit. We recruited kids that wanted to get better, that wanted to do the fun and necessary things that it takes outside of the 24 weeks that were allowed by the NCAA to get better in the off-season,” Jones said.
In 2017, Loras brought four women to the NCAA D3 Outdoor Championships and left with two All-Americans, Bradenburg in the pole vault and Miller in the 10k. For the 2018 indoor championships, the 4x400m relay team and two individual athletes represented the Duhawks. Outdoors, a lone 400m hurdler, Bella Solis (‘19), scored the Duhawks’ only 4 points of the meet.
Photo Credit: Loras Athletics - Bella Solis at the 2019 Outdoor Nationals
In 2019, the Duhawks began to pick up steam. They wrapped up the indoor season fourth at nationals, scoring 26 points between Gabrielle Noland’s (‘20) 200m crown and second place finish in the 60m dash and a runner-up 4x400m relay team. What the points don’t show is that the Duhawks’ crew had grown to seven strong at the meet.
Stevie Lambe, who has run on four of Loras’ national championship-winning 4x100m and 4x400m relays, remembers when the momentum began to shift.
“In 2019, I was a freshman who had no idea I ended up on a team that would have so much success. [But] to say I was training with the best in D3 was not an exaggeration,” Lambe said.
At the 2019 Outdoor Championships, the Duhawks were ranked in the top three heading into the meet. Despite its high rank, the team only brought four individual qualifiers and their two relay teams.
“It really was the perfect storm,” Jones recalled. He vividly remembers when the Duhawks storm started rolling in: Thursday evening during the 10k final when then-sophomore Kassie Parker took the lead in the last mile and didn’t look back. She was ranked seventh heading into the competition.
“With two laps to go, we realized, ‘Oh my god, she’s going to do this,’” Jones said.
Photo Credit: Loras Athletics - Kassie Parker leading the 2019 10k
Parker’s 10-points were quickly bolstered with two first-place finishes by Noland in the 100m and 200m and a second-place finish by Solis in the 400m hurdles. The 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams of Noland, Solis, Lambe, and Alexis Alt (‘20) sealed the deal. With a handful of athletes scoring 53 points, Loras won their first national championship.
“Everything came together that year to be blessed with our first national title,” Parker said. “But all of the seniors graduated, which meant we were going to restart at the bottom.”
Photo Credit: Loras Athletics - Loras on the podium with their first National Title
Despite the loss of Noland and Solis, Loras debuted in the top ten for the first week of USTFCCCA rankings for the 2019-2020 season. Excitement mounted as they rose to a No. 5 ranking ahead of the 2020 Indoor Championships.
A first-ever indoor title looked within reach for the team. Then COVID-19 hit.
“Not having cross country nationals or indoor nationals took a heavy toll on me,” Parker said. “But I think COVID-19 also made our team closer and realize how valuable each meet is, as it can all get taken away in a matter of seconds.”
Like everyone, the athletes and coaches struggled throughout the COVID-19 shutdown, but “unfinished business” quickly became the team’s mantra as they grinded through the year.
“As COVID-19 took us away from each other and away from the track, I really got to know and love some of the girls more,” said Marion Edwards, who had joined the team that season as a transfer. “During that time, I realized why the team had been so successful. Confusion and uncertainty were at an all-time high being away, but one thing that was set in stone was that we were going to hold each other accountable and work as hard as we could no matter whether we would come back or not.”
Photo by Kyle Lauffenberger - Loras embrace after the 2022 4x1
Loras didn’t get a crack at another title until the 2021 Outdoor Championships. By that point, they were an entirely different team than the one that had taken the 2019 crown. Michelle Budden (‘21), an All-American hammer thrower, points to the hiring of assistant coach Mason Tangen in 2020 as a critical part of the transformation.
“The dynamic in the field events changed immensely, and Mason was a big reason for that. He made us more accountable to each other and made us want to be more competitive,” said Budden. “The 2019 championship was won solely with track events scoring, so the field event athletes worked harder to become better.”
The contributions of the field events paid off in a big way in 2021.
“It came down to Terrianna Black having to place fourth in triple jump to essentially seal the W,” said Tangen. “I just remember being stressed but trying to remain calm coaching her through finals. When it was done, and she got fourth, it was relief, excitement. I remember Jones running to me and giving me a hug because it was over and we had won.”
Photo Credit: Loras Athletics - Terrianna Black at 2019 Outdoor Nationals
The team effort of 2021 was noticed by Loras’ athletes as well. They found themselves well-occupied throughout the three-day meet, cheering on all their competitors across North Carolina A&T’s complex.
“It’s so much fun to have such busy days cheering my teammates on,” said Lambe.
Despite the team’s dominance at the 2021 Outdoor Championship, the Duhawks hadn’t forgotten about the “unfinished business” of their 2020 indoor season. Hungry for more hardware to accompany their fourth-place podium finish in 2019, the team got to work.
At the 2022 Indoor Championships, Parker became the third-ever D3 woman to win the 3k and 5k double. She also contributed a blistering 4:51 mile leg to help the distance-medley relay to a runner-up finish. Jones credits the collaborative effort of the DMR as part of what propelled other Duhawks in their performances later that weekend.
“For us as a program, seeing Ellie and Merryl and Alyssa and Kassie—people that don't run races or train together—come together and put on a performance like that… it definitely springboarded us into the weekend,” Jones explained.
Junior Alyssa Pfadenhaeur, who ran the 800m leg of the DMR, also earned her first individual national championship in the 400m dash that weekend. After, she helped the 4x400m team win another national title with a school record-breaking performance of 3:46.45, the No. 5 time in D3 history.
Despite the team’s dominant performance indoors, winning the title by 15 points ahead of the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, the Duhawks could be seen just a day later back on their home track prepping for the outdoor season.
The Duhawks arrived at the 2022 Outdoor Championship ranked second—not that they noticed.
“We are a team that doesn’t get too caught up in rankings,” Lambe said.
She explained how the team was aware that all of the times and marks posted earlier in the season would mean nothing if they were unable to put together their performances at the national meet. They approached the meet with a balance of seriousness and calm.
Lambe recalled covering her ears when the announcers would read the current team standings over the loudspeakers. She and her teammates focused not on places or points but on performing their best at every opportunity.
Their strategy changed as the remaining events dwindled, and Loras had a deficit in points to Wisconsin-Lacrosse heading into the 4x400m relay. In 2021, the triple jump finals had won the Duhawks their outdoor title ahead of the relay, but the team wouldn’t have the luxury of the 4x400 being a victory lap this year.
Jones calculated that the 4x400m relay would need to finish two places ahead of Wisconsin-Lacrosse to win the championship title. The team of Lambe, Edwards, Elayna Bahl, and Pfadenhauer were veterans who had been put in high-pressure situations in the past and performed their best. He trusted them to handle this scenario similarly.
Photo: Maddie Bahr - Alyssa Pfadenhauer waiting for the baton on the anchor leg
“I told them, ‘I think there's only one team out there that can run with us, and I don't think we've run our best race all year. It's just a matter of each one of you doing your own job and having faith and confidence in the other woman next to you,’” Jones calmly told the relay team.
The veterans laced up their spikes, and each held their own against the deeply competitive 4x400 relay field. All nine teams remained tightly bunched throughout the entire race until the last 100m when Pfadenhauer extended the lead with a 53.17 split to secure Loras their fourth national title. The relay team’s time of 3:41.77 would make them No. 5 all-time in D3.
Photo by Kyle Lauffenberger - Loras 4x4 team of Stevie Lambe, Marion Edwards, Elayna Bahl, and Alyssa Pfadenhauer with Coach Matt Jones
Jones points to his athletes as the reason the Duhawks have managed to sustain their energy through the years. Despite winning the title of head coach of the year by USTFCCCA four times, he asserts that his team’s work ethic keeps the championships rolling in.
“Do I give them the tools? Sure. I'm not going to deny that I have something to do with the progression and the training,” Jones said. “But it's our men’s and women’s commitment to the sport, to each other, and to their ability to get better each and every year. That is what has really allowed us to continue to sustain our success.”
Jones reminisced about the careers of the early All-Americans and other team members he coached. He wishes they could have been a part of the Duhawks’ more recent success as an entire team.
“There was a group of them that I messaged after the 2019 national championship and thanked them because it would not have been possible without the groundwork and the foundation being laid from them in the two or three years prior,” Jones said. “They were instrumental in the ship being turned around and heading in the right direction.”
It’s a thought experiment that those athletes have run in their minds as well.
“It’s been a little bittersweet at times, but way more sweet and more envious than bitter. Coach Jones is the most dedicated and whole-hearted coach I’ve ever met or have been coached by,” said Alt, a four-time All-American and member of the 2019 championship team. “He is the center of why our program shifted the way it did. I think my favorite part is seeing all of his years of unnoticed, relentless work finally be recognized and it’s been amazing to watch.”
Photo Credit: Loras Athletics - Coach Jones hugging the 4x100m team after their national title
Powers, who graduated in 2016, agrees.
“I couldn’t be happier to be an alum of such a great team. I have a feeling this legacy is just beginning, and there’s so many more great accomplishments and excitement ahead for this team.”
What will the Duhawks do next? We’ll have to wait and see.