Wednesday, September 28 2011

What's Ahead: The Drake women's cross country team will send a limited squad to Ewing Park in Des Moines to partake in the Grand View Invitational on Friday (Sept. 30). Start time for the 5,000-meter race is at 5 p.m.

Last Time Out: Drake, going up against some of the nation's top-rated teams, finished in 26th-place at the Roy Griak Invitational Women's Gold Division cross country meet held at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, Minn. on Sept. 24.

Two hundred and seventy-two runners from across the nation helped comprise the strongest field that the young Bulldog squad has faced this fall. In addition, seven of the competing teams entered the weekend ranked in the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Poll.

Leading the Bulldog charge was senior Kirsten Lake (Parker, Colo.) who netted a 158th-place finish running the 6,000-meter course in 23:29.

A freshmen trio of Mariel Fulton (Louisville, Colo.), Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) and Melissa Parks (Norfolk, Neb.) finished in 165th, 167th and 172nd places, respectively. Fulton clocked in at 23:39, while Maguire ran the course in 23:42 and Parks finished in 24:08.

A Year Ago: Allie Heifner (Oregon, Wis.) was 19th in Grand View Invitational women's cross country race at Ewing Park.

Heifner covered the 5,000-meter course in 21 minutes 27 seconds.


Lucy Stanke (Spring Valley, Ill.) was 34th in 22:53. 



Grand View's Obsie Birru won the race in 18:08. Sixty-one runners competed.

Up Next: Drake will compete at the Walt Disney Cross Country Classic in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 8.