The Drake University cross country teams return to action on Friday at the Bradley Classic in Peoria, Ill. The meet will serve as the Bulldogs' final tune-up prior to the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Championship.

Competition starts Friday at 4:25 p.m. with the men's 8-kilometer race followed by the women's 6-kilometer race at 5:05 p.m.

The men's race will be the Bulldogs third-straight 8k race of the season. In the team's last outing, junior Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.) recorded a sixth-place finish at the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Ark. His 8k time of 23:43.61 is the top time in the Valley this season by more than 11 seconds and was a nearly two-minute personal best at the distance. For his efforts at the Chile Pepper Festival, he earned his second MVC Cross Country Athlete of the Week honor and the MVC Student-Athlete of the Week award.

The women's team will be racing at the 6k distance for the third time this season and the Bulldogs own three of the top-10 times in the Valley at that distance. Senior Emma Huston (Des Moines, Iowa) owns the team's top time at 6 kilometers with a personal best of 21:56.6 set on Sept. 11 at the Oz Memorial. Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) and Taylor Scholl (Prior Lake, Minn.) finished with times of 22:59.4 and 23:21.9, respectively, at that race. 

The Bulldogs have also been strong at the 5k distance that the MVC Championship is contested at. Huston and Maguire own the top two times in the Valley at 5k with Huston's time of 16:48.09 leading the way. She earned that time at the Chile Pepper Festival to be named the MVC Cross Country Athlete of the Week.

 Following Friday's Bradley Classic, the Bulldogs will have a week off from competition to prepare to the MVC Championship on Oct. 31 in Evansville, Ind.