PEORIA, Ill. – The Drake University men's cross country team turned in a 12^th-place performance while the women's team was 19^th at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship Friday afternoon in Peoria, Ill. The men's team was led by senior Brogan Austin's (Boone, Iowa) sixth-place finish that advances him to next weekend's NCAA Championship as an individual.

“We had some outstanding efforts today and they weren't deterred by the cold weather to finish the season on a great note,” said Drake head coach Dan Hostager. “This will provide some great momentum for the upcoming track season and next fall as we finished ahead of a lot of regionally ranked teams.”

Austin completed the 10-kilometer course in 30:16.5 by moving up four places in the final kilometer of the race. The top four runners not on an NCAA qualifying team advance to the NCAA Championship on Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Ind.

“It was great for Brogan to advance to nationals,” Hostager said. “He's put in a ton of work over the years and ran a gutsy race.”

Senior Conor Wells (Des Moines, Iowa) was the second men's runner across the finish line in 57^th place with a time of 31:05.8 followed closely by Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.) in 60^th at 31:08.0. Drake's 12^th-place team scoring was completed by junior Rob McCann (Mississauga, Ontario) in 92^nd and senior Doug Brady (Englewood, Colo.) in 110^th.

Drake's women's team had three runners finish in the top half of the field to secure its 19^th place showing. Junior Emma Huston (Des Moines, Iowa) paced the Bulldogs by coming in 42^nd with a time of 21:04.1 on the 6-kilometer course. Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) was exactly 25 seconds behind Huston to finish in 71^st with Taylor Scholl (Lake Prior, Minn.) coming in 86^th at 21:36.3.

Erica Bestul (Apple Valley, Minn.) and Melissa Parks (Norfolk, Neb.) finished in 152^nd and 160^th for the Bulldogs final points of the day.

Iowa State and Minnesota took the top two spots in the women's race to advance their teams to the NCAA Championship while Oklahoma State and Tulsa took top honors in the men's field.