CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Drake University senior Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.) completed an outstanding weekend at the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Track & Field Championship by winning the 3,000 meters Saturday afternoon. Fischer also won the 5,000 meters on Friday evening to become just the second Bulldog ever to complete the 3,000/5,000 meter sweep.
 
Fischer won the 3,000 meters in the final 80 meters as he kicked past Loyola's Alex Baker to win in 8:20.59.
 
"It was awesome, you can't ask for a better end to the weekend than that," Fischer said. "It was fast going out but I knew I had to close much faster to win in. There's a lot of really good milers in the race and I'm more of a 10k guy, so I knew I have to be ready for a kick because there were some guys with gnarly wheels behind me. But getting the title last night and the title in cross country gave me some confidence."
 
In addition to the pair of MVC titles, Fischer set school records in both events earlier in the season.
 
Fischer's come-from-behind win highlighted a series of strong individual performances from the Bulldogs on the final day of the MVC Championship.

"What a great conference meet by our team," said Drake co-interim head coach LaRon Bennett. "After looking at our projected point rankings, we weren't looking strong on either side. I challenged the team give everything that had and I told the captains that they had to step up and lead the team, and the team had to step up do their part. Today, they did just that."

Earlier in the day, Mary Young (Urbandale, Iowa) finished third in the 60-meter hurdles with a personal best of 8.34, the second-fastest time in school history and just one one-hundreth of a second off the school record. Young's performance was bested only by sisters Taylor and Nikki Larch Miller of Wichita State who finished in 8.22 and 8.30, respectively. Both of their times bested the previous MVC Championship record.
 
Also on the track for the women's team, Rai Ahmed-Green (Irvine, Calif.) turned in a big personal best to finish fourth in the 400 meters in 55.81. Her time was the fourth fastest in school history.

"Rai's performance was huge because she came in ranked 10th in the conference and ended up finishing six spots higher with a PR," Bennett said.

Ahmed-Green and Young also teamed up to run two legs on the Bulldogs' 4x400-meter relay that finished fourth.
 
The men's team was bolstered by a pair of scorers in the 60 meters as Demetrius Shelton (Markham, Ill.) was sixth in 6.92 while Caulin Graves (Kansas City, Mo.) was seventh in 6.96.

"Caulin and Demetrius ran two monster PRs to make the finals today," Bennett said. "I told them nobody expected them to be in the finals, so go show them why you expected to be there. They responded by finishing sixth and seventh."

Bas Van Leersum (Zaandam, The Netherlands) completed his strong indoor season by finishing third in the 400 meters in 48.66. The senior won his heat, which was the slower of the two championship heats run against time.
 
The field events were also productive for the Bulldogs as Taryn Rolle (Nassau, The Bahamas) and Johnathan Osifuye (Woodbury, Minn.) both finished third in the triple jump. Rolle recorded a mark of 40-1.5 against the women's field while Osifuye cleared 49-0.75. Freshman Tamar Mosby (Belleville, Ill.) also scored in the women's high jump by clearing 5-3.25 to finish fourth.
 
As a team, Drake's women's team finished seventh in the team standings while the men were seventh as well. Wichita State swept the men's and women's titles.

"The performances that we achieved this weekend validated all the hard work the team been putting in since the fall," Bennett said. "I'm excited to see how they compete as we transition to our outdoor season. We represented Drake well tonight."

 
MVC Indoor Track & Field Championship
Cedar Falls, Iowa – UNI Dome
Feb. 26, 2017
 
Men's Team Scores
1. Wichita State, 146
2. SIU, 108
3. UNI, 101
4. Illinois State, 92
5. Indiana State, 75
6. Bradley, 59
7. Drake, 43
8. Loyola, 38
 
60 Meters
6. Demetrius Shelton, 6.92
7. Caulin Graves, 6.96
 
400 Meters
3. Bas Van Leersum. 48.66
 
3,000 Meters
1. Reed Fischer, 8:20.59
22. Josh Yeager, 8:41.66
24. Chris Kaminski, 8:44.14
26. Kyle Cass, 8:44.60
34. Matt Cozine, 8:54.86
37. Kyle Brandt, 9:03.01
 
4x400-Meter Relay
5. Graves, Van Leersum, Priebe, Metivier, 3:19.34
 
High Jump
12. Forest Moses, 6-4.75
 
Triple Jump
3. Johnathan Osifuye, 49-0.75
 
 
Women's Team Scores
1. Wichita State, 181
2. Illinois State, 119
3. Indiana State, 98
4. SIU, 89
5. UNI, 67.5
6. Missouri State, 46
7. Drake, 33.5
8. Loyola, 15
9. Bradley, 14
 
400 Meters
4. Rai Ahmed-Green, 55.81
 
3,000 Meters
20. Mykaela Cole, 10:35.16
23. Morgan Garcia, 10:41.22
 
4x400-Meter Relay
4. Ahmed-Green, Young, Okoye, Crawford, 3:48.00
 
60-Meter Hurdles
3. Mary Young, 8.34
 
High Jump
4. Tamar Mosby, 5-3.25
7. Taylor Patton, 5-3.25
 
Triple Jump
3. Taryn Rolle, 40-1.5