The Drake University cross country teams return to action on Friday afternoon at the Bradley Classic in Peoria, Ill., for its first competition in two weeks and the team's final race before upcoming the Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
The men's team takes to the course first with an 8-kilometer race at 4:25 p.m. against a 22-team field that features three fellow MVC programs. The 8-kilometer course features a flat first two kilometers followed by a gradual climb and descent in the third kilometer and a steep climb in the fourth kilometer. The men's race will cover the third and fourth kilometer loop three times. The women's 6-kilometer race will cover the same course with two loops around the final loop.
“It's a good course and it will help determine the last couple of spots in our lineup,” head coach Dan Hostager. “The field is always strong with several schools from the Valley competing and that will give us a chance to see where we're at.”
The team is coming off two weeks of intense training, followed by the much-needed Fall Break earlier this week.
“Workouts have been going extremely well and we're just coming off fall break so it was good to get everyone rested up heading into the championship portion of our season in two weeks,” Hostager said.
In its last outing, Drake took on an extremely deep field at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn. Ryan Flynn (Bettendorf, Iowa) was Drake's top finisher on the men's side with a time of 25:49.5 to finish 108th in that 8-kilometer competition. He narrowly edged teammate Rob McCann (Mississauga, Ontario) who was 109th in 25:50.2.
Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) led the Drake women's team in its last outing with a 6-kilometer time of 23:12.70 to finish 173rd in the 300-runner field. Taylor Scholl (Prior Lake, Minn.) was next across the line in 186th and a time of 23:19.25.
With two weeks of additional training and preparation since the Griak Invitational, Hostager is anticipating another strong showing from the Bulldogs at the Bradley Classic.
“The team has shown tremendous improvement in the last two weeks and we want to keep the progression going,” Hostager said. “So this is a fair course with good cross country weather and it will be good chance for most of the team to run a personal best.”
