It’s not every Friday that students at Loras are treated to lunch and a free concert. Last Friday, March 16, CAB hosted a unique open mic event right in the cafeteria.

“CAB has been considering hosting an event during lunch or common time this semester,” said Kelly McGovern, the event organizer. “We structured it as a competition to give every artist an opportunity to perform.”

Students that performed included cover bands and a few solo artists. One of those performing her own material was Devin Gackle. She said one of her songs, “Walk in a Whisper,” was inspired by a friend and by her horoscope that day, which inspired her to do something creative. She immediately went and wrote a song about these events.  Her songs were among the best received, along with William Geist, who played an acoustic set covering pop songs like “Pumped up Kicks” by Foster the People. Other artists playing that day included Megan Moore, Edward DeBartolo, Joel Pohland, and Jacob Pfhol.

The event was rather unique in that the performers were entirely audience chosen. This meant the performer had to get the audience’s attention quickly.

Near the end of the performance, the audience members had to text in their vote, much like a Loras version of American Idol.

“CAB used Loras’ polling system to engage the audience with a live poll to vote for their top performer,” said McGovern. Edward DeBartolo and Jake Pfohl won the event and were presented a trophy engraved “Loras Live Top Performer.”

The event wrapped up with a jam session with all the musicians coming together to play different pop songs, with some requests from the audience, asking for everything from “Free Bird” to an encore of “Pumped Up Kicks.”

“I saw students who had finished eating but were still hanging around for the entertainment,” said McGovern. “Everyone seemed to love it.”

The first track and field meet of the outdoor season is fast approaching. This Saturday the Duhawks will host the annual Alumni Meet at the Rock Bowl.

While the Loras College Alumni track meet may be a bit relaxed compared to other meets later in the season, it is, nonetheless, a good chance for the Duhawks to knock some dust off the ol’ spikes. This Saturday current Duhawks and graduated Loras Alumni will have a chance to meet head to head in an entertaining and competitive showdown.

Many track athletes are looking forward to the start of the outdoor season.

“We’ve been training really hard the past couple weeks in between the indoor and outdoor season and I know our hard work will pay off,” said Ashley Rouse, junior mid-distance runner. ”I’m really excited to see what the team can do this year.”

The Duhawks have very high hopes for the outdoor season. At the indoor conference meet in late February, both the women’s and men’s teams placed top 3 in the conference.

“I am very excited for the outdoor season this year,” said Rouse. ”We had a great indoor season and finished really well at Indoor Conference. Our performances during the indoor season showed all the potential we have.”

On the women’s side of the team, there is little to be improved on from indoor conference. The women placed 2nd at the meet thanks to a very talented and hard working group.

The throwers are very intimidating going into the outdoor season, with a powerful lineup that did very well indoors. The sprints and hurdles this year are very young, but hope to make up for the young age with talent and hard work. The women’s mid-distance and distance squads have a good amount of experience this year, and plan on utilizing that leadership come meet time.

On the men’s side, several areas of competition look very strong going into the outdoor season. Senior Sean Campbell leads a very good men’s throwing squad. Campbell claimed the indoor championship in the weight throw.

The Loras short and long sprints look to be very strong in both the open and relay events. The men’s mid-distance and distance squads are also very intimidating this year, having won conference cross country and scoring well in the indoor conference meet.

Both teams are looking forward to the upcoming season and hope to improve upon their indoor meet finishes.

The baseball team traveled to Minneapolis this past weekend to face Concordia College-Moorhead. The match up was very competitive which gave Loras a good weekend of baseball and a chance to recapture some momentum lost from the week off from games.

“After you play eight games and take a week off, you can easily lose some much needed momentum from the first eight games,” said head coach Carl Tebon. “Baseball is a game that requires repetition of game type experiences, and that week off slowed us down. Concordia College-Moorhead is a great team, but we got to win those one run games.”

Despite not having a week with any games, the team still came out with some energy and was able to match up with Concordia and go 2-2 on the weekend. Although they went .500 on the weekend, Loras dominated the score count outscoring their opponent by 9 runs total through four games.

One reason their opponent was unable to earn as many runs can be attributed to the solid job done by Loras’ pitchers. Even the back-up pitchers played crucial roles during their wins, continuing their success that seems to have carried over from last week.

As with most occasions there were a few things to improve upon from the weekend. One way coach Tebon describes the run of play is that is was “up and down like a roller coaster.” They had their mistakes, but they also had their glimpses of greatness.

“The underclassmen of this team have been gaining much needed experience and that is very important for us,” said Tebon. “The amount of experience that they are getting is very valuable and this is something that in earlier years we didn’t have, and that is making a huge difference for the team.”

The pitching really took a huge step forward this past weekend, improving their ERA to 3.72 on the season. This stat has been very important in their successes up to date because they have held their opponents to low scores.

“One thing we need to work on from the defensive standpoint is our fielding,” said coach Tebon. “We can’t be giving our opponents 4 or 5 outs per inning. We also can’t allow big innings where they score 2 or 3 runs in one inning.”

Aside from these small errors that the team has made, coach Tebon seems to be very happy with the progress of the team and how they are coming together to achieve these victories over some very capable teams.

The other thing that really stood out to the coach was a seemingly small factor, yet very important one. It’s often overlooked and not considered important, but he sees it as a very big deal and was very happy to see it.

“I have been very impressed with concentration and focus of the guys in the dugout,” said coach Tebon. “The team understands that the morale needs to be high and that we need to  stay in the moment even when they aren’t in. So far everyone is showing up ready to do their part and this is great to see early on.”

All the wheels are turning for the team early on and with the positive attitudes that they are bringing to the field and the concentration that they possess great things are possible.

Tuesday the Duhawks traveled to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for an afternoon game that saw Loras lose 4-3 despite two hits by juniors Mike Canevello and Billy Kass.

Kass added two runs batted in, while Canevello touched home plate twice, but it was not enough after Wisconsin-Platteville’s junior catcher Topher Scheeler, who had a two run double to put the Pioneers ahead.

This weekend the Duhawks will begin conference play as they start their schedule against Simpson College in Indianola with one game on Friday and a double-header on Saturday.

I step outside,
my only means of protection
shielding my arms and torso,
preparing to face the beast
and its attack at my face,
but instead I am granted
with a soft blanket of warmth,
healing my bleeding cheeks,
thankful to feel the animal’s soft fur
instead of the bite
of its prickly teeth.

He quit the game of tennis once, but he made the best decision of his life when he returned to the game he loves. Now, freshman Jon Moore is leading the team at the college level in his hometown, and he’s our choice for this week’s Duhawk Spotlight.

Zach Altfillisch and Katlyn Gerken compete to find out who can hit a golf ball the farthest. Special thanks to Dubuque Driving Range.

With gas prices on the rise, people—especially college students—are looking for cost-effective transportation alternatives. The new U-Haul Car Share program on the Loras campus provides just that; a convenient and cheap mode of transportation.

“It gives people who don’t have cars on campus a practical form of transportation,” said Car Share program employee Lucas Evett. “Whether they have to run to the store, attend a job interview, or go see a movie, they now have a way.”

Emily Full

Started by U-Haul Company a few years ago, Loras was the second college in Iowa to bring the program to campus and is one of twenty campuses nationally participating in the program.

Kevin O’Brien, 2011 Loras graduate and last year’s student government president, and current junior Henry Song worked diligently to bring the program here. The hard work continued, and last semester the paper work and technicalities were finalized. This the first semester with the car share program in full-swing on campus.

“The key is marketing,” Evett said. “We want to get the word out about this new service.”

Indeed, it is convenient, but that is not the only perk. This service helps lower students’ carbon footprints because the rentals are hybrid cars. Furthermore, people have an incentive to carpool in order to split the cost of renting. This is a major emphasis of the new program; it provides not only transportation but environmentally conscious transportation.

If you are interested in the program, you can set up an account on uhaulcarshare.com. After preliminary information is filled out, you may reserve a car online any time.

Evett commented, “If you put in the promo code, lucas (all lower-case), you will save even more money.”