Wednesday, August 31, 2011
What's Ahead: The Drake men's cross country
team, under the direction of head coach Dan
Hostager, will open up its season hosting the annual Bulldog Classic this
Friday (Sept. 2) at Ewing Park, located on the south side of Des Moines. The
women's race will begin at 5 p.m., and the men's race is set to follow at 5:30
p.m.
Sizing
Up The Squad: The Bulldogs return seven
letterwinners from last year's team which finished fifth at the Missouri Valley
Conference meet. Drake expects big contributions from the sophomore duo of Brogan Austin (Boone, Iowa) and Omet Kak (Des Moines, Iowa), who should
benefit from their experience during the outdoor track season at the 2011 NCAA
Outdoor Track and Field West Regional.
The senior tandem of Colin Hagan (Wichita, Kan.) and Ben Jaskowiak (Madison, Wis.), who both finished in the top 30 at
last year's conference meet, are expected to provide leadership for the young
squad.
Three freshmen will come into the fold for
the Bulldogs with Conor Wells (Des
Moines, Iowa), Tyler Nelson (Lone
Tree, Colo.) and Colin Duffy
(Wichita, Kan.) all joining the team this year.
A Year Ago: Tim Cornish paced the Drake
men's cross country team in its season opener Friday by finishing fifth in the
Bulldog Classic at Ewing Park.
Cornish was timed in 12 minutes 50 seconds for the
4,000 meter race. Iowa State's Danny Ducharme claimed the individual title in
12:38.
Omet Kak,
a former two-time Iowa state prep track champ from North High School in Des
Moines, was seventh in 12:53.
Brogan Austin,
who won both the 1,600 and 3,200 at the 2010 Iowa Class 3A state track meet
while competing for Boone, was ninth in 12:55.
Matt Jurysta (Oshawa,
Ontario) was 10th in 12:56 followed by Charlie Lapham
(Golden Valley, Minn.) 11th in 12:57, while Colin Hagan
was 12th in 12:59.
Drake
Earns Spot In USTFCCCA Midwest Regional Rankings:
The Drake men's cross country team opens up the 2011 campaign ranked 12th
in the first United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches
Association Midwest Regional poll.
The Bulldogs were ranked five spots ahead of
their 17th-place showing a year ago. The highest ranking Drake had last season
was after their Oz Memorial team victory when it was ranked 11th.
Bulldogs
Picked Third In Conference Preseason Poll: Drake has been tabbed to
finish third in the 2011 Preseason Missouri Valley Conference Men's Cross
Country Coaches' Poll released on August 22.
"Our team believes that we should always be
in the top three and has been working very hard to be in a position to vie for
the MVC title at the end of October," said Hostager. "It'll
certainly take a lot of hard work with the strength of our conference and the fact
that the top two teams from last fall, Indiana State and Southern Illinois,
return nearly everyone."
Indiana State was picked as the preseason
favorite earning 77 points, while Southern Illinois finished second with 74
points. Drake received 58 points to net third place. Illinois State earned the
fourth spot in the poll with 51 points and UNI notched the fifth pick at 47
points. Rounding out the poll was Wichita State (37 points), Bradley (30
points), Creighton (16 points) and Evansville (15 points).
