The Drake University men's and women's track and field teams begin the championship portion of their season this weekend with the annual Missouri Valley Conference Championship in Wichita, Kan.
 
Action for the Bulldogs begins Friday at 2 p.m. with the men's hammer throw and continues on the track with events starting at 6 p.m. at Cessna Stadium. Field events begin Saturday at 3 p.m. for the teams with track events starting at 5 p.m. The final day of action on Sunday starts at 11:30 a.m.
 
Portions of each day's action will be broadcast on The Valley on ESPN3. Friday's broadcast begins at 7:50 p.m., Saturday at 4:45 p.m. and Sunday at 12:55 p.m.
 
The Bulldogs travel to Wichita following a strong outdoor season with successive improvements each competition. Currently, the Bulldogs have recorded 25 performances this season that rank in the top-10 in the MVC this season.
 
The hurdles again look to be a strong area for the Bulldogs with four men ranking in the top eight in the MVC in the 400-meter hurdles with senior and defending MVC Champion Bas Van Leersum (Zaandam, The Netherlands) leading the way with his time of 51.35 set last weekend at Nebraska. In the women's 100-meter hurdles, Mary Young (Urbandale, Iowa) owns the top time in the league at 13.30 set at the Drake Relays.
 
Senior Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.) is entered in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, two events in which he owns the top time in the MVC. His time of 13:48.22 set at the Drake Relays shattered the 30-year-old Drake school record in the event. The women's distance crew is led by Bailee Cofer (Overland Park, Kan.) who owns the seventh-fastest 10,000-meter time in the league.
 
In the MVC's annual pre-championship poll, Drake's men's team was projected for finish seventh as was the women's team. Wichita State was the near unanimous choice to sweep the men's and women's titles.