DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University cross country teams opened up the 2014 season with the annual Bulldog Classic at Ewing Park on the southside of Des Moines.
The Bulldogs battled rainy and wet conditions in racing against Iowa, Iowa State, UNI and Creighton on the hilly 4-kilometer course. The meet was set up as a multi-dual meet with each team's score being computed against each of the other four teams individually. The Bulldogs' women's team scored one win in that format by defeating Creighton, 26-31, while the men clipped Iowa State, 25-34.
“You want to be ready for everything and each meet builds on itself and this will help us in the preparation phase to be ready for next week and so on,” said Drake head coach Dan Hostager. “We want to be ready as the big meets roll along.”
Emma Huston (Des Moines, Iowa) led the women's team with a seventh-place finish in 15:06 as she was one of four Bulldogs to finish in the top-20 of the 46-runner field. Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) was the second Bulldog across the line in 11th place at 15:23.
“This is definitely the most in-shape I've been for cross country season and hopefully it will be a good season,” Huston said. “We have good freshmen and hopefully we'll continue to improve as a team. I feel this is a good team and we're excited to see what we can do.”
Veteran runners Taylor Scholl (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Melissa Parks (Norfolk, Neb.) finished 19th and 20th respectively.
“It was really good to get one under our belt because we had three freshmen running so it was good first step of the season,” Hostager said.
Of those freshmen, Bailee Cofer (Overland Park, Kan.) was the team's top freshman finisher in 29th place at 16:03 while fellow newcomer Katie Berger (Smithville, Mo.) was 34th in 16:27. Iowa State's Heidi Engelhardt won the women's race in 14:44 as the Cyclones swept the first through fourth spots in the race.
“You could tell the team trained hard over the summer and I think a lot of them did quite a bit better than they did in this meet last year,” Hostager said of the Bulldogs' effort. “We're excited to get in a 6k next week that will give us more feedback.”
The men's team was paced by Rob McCann (Mississauga, Ont.) who, coming off a standout outdoor track season, finished 16th in 13:00. Sophomore Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.) finished just behind McCann in 17th in 13:01.
“For a lot of us it was a 'rustbuster' race, but we wanted to get a good race in, especially for the freshmen,” McCann said. “This was a great place to get that, run relaxed and practice for our more competitive races.”
A freshman, Chris Kaminski (New Lenox, Ill.) was the Bulldogs' third finisher in 13:02 and 20th place while Conor Wells (Des Moines, Iowa) was 24th in 13:11. Iowa's Ben Anderson won the men's race in 13:20.
“The freshmen got their first race under their belt and the training is going well,” Hostager added after the race. “We're focused on starting the season from a training standpoint right now more so than results.”
That training will continue throughout the upcoming week in preparation for next week's Oz Memorial in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sept. 5. The annual meet, hosted by the University of Minnesota, has a particularly special meaning for the Bulldogs as it is named in memory of former Drake coach Gary Osborn, who passed away on May 21, 2000. Osborn was a longtime friend of former Minnesota coach Gary Wilson. Osborn served as the head coach of the Drake women's cross country program from 1989-99 and also assumed the head coaching duties of the women's track & field program during the 1993-94 season. Under his guidance, the Bulldogs won consecutive Missouri Valley Conference cross country titles in 1994 and 1995, as well as 1998. The Drake graduate dedicated 32 years of his life to coaching at Drake.
Bulldog Classic – Ewing Park
Drake Women's Results
4 kilometers – 46 runners
7. Emma Huston, 15:06
11. Krista Maguire, 15:23
19. Taylor Scholl, 15:47
20. Melissa Parks, 15:51
29. Bailee Cofer, 16:03
31. Mariah Kauder, 16:10
34. Katie Berger, 16:27
35. Cassie Aerts, 16:38
37. Elana Breitenbucher, 16:44
39. Erica Bestul, 17:07
40. Laura Gann, 17:07
43. Angela Ufheil, 17:28
44. Samantha Nielsen, 17:31
45. Stephanie Parks, 17:42
46. Shelby Varney, 18:26
Drake Men's Results
4 kilometers – 46 runner
16. Rob McCann, 13:00
17. Reed Fisher, 13:01
20. Chris Kaminski, 13:02
24. Conor Wells, 13:11
26. James Saxton, 13:17
32. Doug Brady, 13:34
34. Ali Jandal, 13:42
37. Ryan Ross, 13:54
39. Ryan Tunink, 13:57
41. Calvin Quarterman, 14:06
46. George Webb, 14:43
Men's Team Dual Scoring
Drake – 25 (3 4 5 6 7 9 10)
Iowa State – 34 (1 2 8 11 12)
Iowa – 15 (1 2 3 4 5 6 10)
Drake – 47 (7 8 9 11 12 13 14)
Creighton – 24 (1 2 5 6 10 11 14)
Drake – 31 (3 4 7 8 9 12 13)
Northern Iowa – 23 (1 2 3 7 10 11 14)
Drake – 32 (4 5 6 8 9 12 13)
Iowa – 20 (1 3 4 5 7 8 9)
Iowa State – 41 (2 6 10 11 12)
Creighton – 24 (1 4 5 6 8 9 11)
Iowa State – 32 (2 3 7 10 12)
Northern Iowa – 26 (3 4 5 6 8 9 11)
Iowa State – 32 (1 2 7 10 12)
Iowa – 19 (1 3 4 5 6 7 11)
Creighton – 41 (2 8 9 10 12 13 14)
Iowa – 15 (1 2 3 4 5 7 10)
Northern Iowa – 46 (6 8 9 11 12 13 14)
Northern Iowa – 26 (2 3 4 8 9 10 13)
Creighton – 30 (1 5 6 7 11 12 14)
Women's Team Dual Scoring
Iowa State – 16 (1 2 3 4 6 8 11)
Drake – 43 (5 7 9 10 12 13 14)
Iowa – 26 (2 4 5 6 9 13)
Drake – 29 (1 3 7 8 10 11 12)
Drake – 26 (2 4 5 6 9 10 11)
Creighton – 31 (1 3 7 8 12 13)
Northern Iowa – 25 (1 4 5 6 9 10 11)
Drake – 32 (2 3 7 8 12 13 14)
Iowa State – 16 (1 2 3 4 6 9 12)
Iowa – 41 (5 7 8 10 11 13)
Iowa State – 16 (1 2 3 4 6 8 10)
Creighton – 44 (5 7 9 11 12 13)
Iowa State – 16 (1 2 3 4 6 10 13)
Northern Iowa – 40 (5 7 8 9 11 12 14)
Iowa – 24 (2 4 5 6 7 10)
Creighton – 32 (1 3 8 9 11 12)
Iowa – 27 (2 3 5 8 9 13)
Northern Iowa – 28 (1 4 6 7 10 11 12)
Northern Iowa – 23 (1 4 5 6 7 8 10)
Creighton – 37 (2 3 9 11 12 13)
Note: Only top 5 runners count in scoring.
