"We had a lot of personal bests tonight," Drake head coach Dan Hostager said. "So we are very excited about the upcoming MVC Championships. Almost all of our women had career bests today and there's more there when they start their taper."

Although the women finished in 11th place in the 21-team field with a total of 298 points, almost every runner competing ran a personal best. The Bulldogs were led by fifth-year senior Kirsten Lake (Parker, Colo.), who finished in 13th place in 21:37.

Lake, who has been Drake most impressive runner this season and has been the Bulldogs' top finisher in each race she has competed in, was happy with the team performance.

"Everyone did really well today." Lake said. "There were a lot of big personal records so everyone was really happy with how they performed. I think the team is more confident to compete well at the conference meet."

Lake was hoping for a top-10 finish, but was satisfied with her personal best time on a 6-kilometer course.

Freshmen Taylor Scholl (Prior Lake, Minn.), Emma Huston (Des Moines, Iowa) and Cassie Aerts (David City, Neb.) followed Lake to the finish line.

"It's great to have a senior leading the way, but with so many freshmen in our front group, they're just learning how to race this distance at this level," Hostager said.

Scholl finished 39th in a time of 22:02. Huston was half a minute behind at 22:36, coming in 70th. Aerts crossed the line 87th in 22:50 and was closely followed by sophomore Mariel Fulton (Louisville, Colo.) in 22:51 to round out the scoring.

The Bulldogs are now looking forward to the Missouri Valley Conference Championships to be held in Normal, Ill. on Oct. 27.

"I'm now more motivated to run harder at conference. Over all it was a good day for everyone," Lake said.

Hostager was also impressed by his athletes' performances and confidence heading into the MVC Championships.

"They've worked extremely hard all season so it's great to see that reflected in their performances." Hostager said.

Illinois State won the team event with 102 points. Sarah Hudak of UAB was the individual champion, finishing the course in an impressive 20:40.

Junior Amanda Marwitz (Crystal Lake, Ill.) put together a top-100 performance on the afternoon, running the difficult course in 22:56 to finish in 94th place. Celeste Arteaga (Rock Island, Ill.), 22:59, crossed the line nine runners after her teammate in 103rd place.

Junior Allie Heifner crossed the line 133rd in 23:18 while Erin Dobey (Evergreen, Colo.) was the 149th runner to finish in 23:36. Sophomore Stephanie Parks (Norfolk, Neb.) was four spots behind Dobey in 153rd in 23:37.

The freshmen tandem of Emma Johnson (Mora, Minn.), 24:03, and Laura Gann (Wheaton, Ill.), 24:30, came in at 172th and 186th place respectively to finish out the impressive individual performances by the Bulldogs.