PEORIA, Ill. - Drake cross country's Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Emma Huston (Des Moines, Iowa) continued their strong seasons with top-three finishes at the Bradley Classic on Friday afternoon at the Newman Golf Course.
Huston led the Bulldogs in the women's 6-kilometer race with a third-place finish and personal-best time of 20:28.5 in the 267-runner field. Krista Maguire (Wausau, Wis.) also notched a top-10 finish with a time of 21:03.5 to finish 17th overall with a nearly two-minute career best.
“Emma ran extremely well and the only two runners that finished ahead of her qualified for NCAAs last year,” said Drake head coach Dan Hostager. “All four of our seniors on the women's team led us with huge personal bests today and nine of our 11 runners recorded personal bests today."
In addition to Huston and Maguire's times, Taylor Scholl (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Cassie Aerts (David City, Neb.) also had personal bests with times of 21:39.6 and 22:00.3, respectively. Those performances helped the Bulldogs finish ninth in the 30-team field ahead of programs such as Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon State and MVC rivals UNI and Bradley.
In the men's 8-kilometer race, Fischer was the top attached runner in the 249-runner field with a time of 23:52.2. His performance was the third-fastest overall time and just 10 seconds off his personal best.
"Reed had another outstanding race today and nearly came away with the win,” Hostager said.
Griffin Jaworski (Winter Park, Fla.) was the next Bulldog across the line in 49th place with a time of 25:02.1. Rob McCann (Mississauga, Ont.), racing for just the second time this season, turned in a time of 24:46.2. As a team, the men finished 16th out of 26 teams but defeated three Big East programs in Marquette, Creighton and DePaul.
“Both teams raced very well against some great competition,” Hostager added. “Nearly everyone was able to post a season best and a few had career bests. So we are excited for our conference championship in two weeks."
The Bradley Classic was the Bulldogs' final tune-up before the MVC Championships. The team will spend the next two weeks training for the championship on Oct. 31 in Evansville, Ind.
Bradley Classic
Peoria, Ill. - Newman Golf Course
Men's 8k (Red)
Drake Individual Results
3. Reed Fischer, 23:52.2
55. Griffin Jaworski, 25:02.1
128. Rob McCann, 25:46.2
154. Ali Jandal, 26:07.9
168. Cole Friedman, 26:20.2
181. Josh Yeager, 26:30.1
185. Chris Kaminski, 26:35.5
206. George Webb, 27:06.6
216. Ryan Tunink, 27:23.3
235. John Freeman, 28:19.7
240. Mick Norton, 29:00.2
Bradley Classic
Peoria, Ill. - Newman Golf Course
Women's 6k (Red)
Drake Individual Results
3. Emma Huston, 20:28.5
15. Krista Maguire, 21:03.5
45. Taylor Scholl, 21:39.6
86. Cassie Aerts, 22:00.3
125. Bailee Cofer, 22:19.5
127. Meghan Kearney, 22:21.1
210. Erica Bestul, 23:16.0
238. Elana Breitenbucher, 24:13.5
245. Katie Berger, 24:39.0
250. Shelby Varney, 24:59.0
258. Theresa McAlister, 25:58.7
