Saturday, October 8, 2011
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Fueled by three top-five performances, the Drake men's cross country team won the Walt Disney Cross Country Classic at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on Saturday.
The Bulldogs, battling wet conditions for the first time this fall campaign, earned 31 points to win the team title. This marked the fourth team title of the season for the men's squad.
"Our guys gave good efforts today in the rain," commented head coach Dan Hostager. "We have not raced any of these teams before so we didn't know what to expect."
Leading the way for the Bulldogs was sophomore Brogan Austin (Boone, Iowa), who ran the 8,000-meter flat course in 25:13.86 to earn second-place. Fellow sophomore Omet Kak (Des Moines, Iowa) was fourth crossing the line in 25:33.10, while senior Colin Hagan (Wichita, Kan.) finished fifth with a time of 25:42.98.
Senior Ben Jaskowiak (Madison, Wis.) had a ninth-place outing completing the course in 26:13.17, while junior Charlie Lapham (Golden Valley, Minn.) was 11th in 26:17.85.
"It was nice to get the win," said Hostager. "We will have to keep improving over the next few weeks to fare well at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championship or at the regional championships."
Drake will round out the regular season portion of its schedule competing at the Bradley Classic on Oct. 14 in Peoria, Ill.
