Wednesday, September 21, 2011

What's Ahead: The Drake women's cross country team will return to Minnesota for the second time this month competing at the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday (Sept. 24). The 6,000-meter race will take place at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, Minn. starting at 1:10 p.m.

Last Time Out: In its first 6,000-meter race of the year, Drake finished fifth at the Oz Memorial held at the Les Bolstad Golf Course on Sept. 9. 

Host Minnesota ran away with the team title scoring 15 points, the lowest-possible score for a meet.

The trio of sophomore Amanda Marwitz (Crystal Lake, Ill.) and freshmen Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) and Melissa Parks (Norfolk, Neb.) finished in 52nd, 53th and 54th places, respectively. Marwitz was timed in 25:17.37, while Maguire crossed the line in 25:22.35 and Parks finished in 25:23.18.

A Year Ago: Casey McDermott was 88th at the Roy Griak Invitational Women's Gold Division cross country meet at the Les Bolstad Golf Course on September 25, 2010.

McDermott was timed in 22 minutes 44 seconds on the 6,000-meter course. The Bulldogs placed 22nd out of 29 teams.

Three-hundred runners, representing more than 29 schools from across the country, helped comprise the strongest cross country field a young Drake team faced last falll.

Tara Scieszinski was 139th in 23:38, while then freshman Erin Poss (Antioch, Ill.) placed 143rd in 23:48. 

Arizona placed five runners among the top 25 to win the team title with 76 points, followed by New Mexico (101), Iowa State (111), Duke (117) and Providence (135) rounding out the top five.

Up Next: The Bulldogs will have a partial squad compete at the Grand View Invitational held at Ewing Park in Des Moines on Friday, Sept. 30.