The Drake University cross country teams will travel to Minnesota to compete in one of the biggest meets in the country at the 29th Roy Griak Invitational, hosted by the University of Minnesota on Saturday, Sept. 27.
Nearly 400 competitors from 30 Division I teams are scheduled to take to the course with the men's 8-kilometer race at 12:20 p.m., followed by the women's 6-kilometer race at 1:10 p.m.
The Bulldogs will face a combined 10 nationally ranked programs on the afternoon with the women's race featuring a pair of top-10 programs in No. 3 Michigan State and No. 9 Iowa State.
“It's our first big meet of the season and the first weekend the NCAA uses for times for at-large berths and nationals,” said head coach Dan Hostager. “Teams want to be at full strength right now. We'll be missing a few this weekend but are still focused on our training.”
Both teams trained through their last competition, the Viking Invitational, in Des Moines, but have rested up to be at their best against the Griak Invitational field.
“It will be good for the team to get its legs back this week in training and see where we're at,” Hostager said. “We're coming off of a couple of good weeks of training and everyone has made significant improvement over their times last year. This will be a good checkpoint for us this year.”
In its last outing, the men's team ran just five competitors to finish second at the Viking Invitational with freshman Isaiah Vlasek (Walford, Iowa) leading the way with a sixth-place finish. The women's team claimed the team title while Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) won the 5-kilometer race.
Last season, Maguire was the Bulldogs' women's team top finisher at the Griak Invitational by coming in 173rd in the 300-runner field with a time of 23:12.70 on the 6-kilometer course. Rob McCann (Mississauga, Ontario) is the top returner from last year's Griak field for the Bulldogs. He was 108th out of 246 runners with a time of 25:50.2 on the 8-kilometer course.
Following Saturday's races, the teams will continue their grueling October schedule at the University of Arkansas' Chile Pepper Festival on Oct. 4.
