IOWA CITY, Iowa -  Drake University senior Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.) added to his impressive legacy on Friday afternoon by earning a spot in the NCAA Cross Country Championship. Fischer, the reigning Missouri Valley Conference champion, qualified for the NCAA field with a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional on Friday, Nov. 11.
 
Fisher moved up through the field, making up six spots in the final 3,500 meters of the 10k race, to advance to next week's NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 19. Fischer completed the 10k course, his first 10k competition of the year, in 30:29.8.
 
"Reed ran an excellent tactical race," said Drake head coach Dan Hostager. "He's put a lot of work into making it to NCAAs so it was great to see it happen against some of the nation's best. There's definitely more left to be done as his goal has always been to do well at NCAAs. So he won't be satisfied just getting there and achieving this tremendous accomplishment in of itself."
 
As a team, the Drake men's squad finished 20^th out of the 33 teams that entered runners in the competition and ahead of the likes of DePaul, Creighton, SIU and UNI. The extremely young Drake women's team, led again by Bailee Cofer (Overland Park, Kan.) finished 32^nd in the field of nearly 40 teams. Cofer finished in the top half of the competition in 114^th place for the Bulldogs.
 
Of the 12 Bulldogs that competed at the NCAA Midwest Regional, nine were either freshman or sophomores and eight were competing in their first NCAA Regional competitions.  
 
"Both teams are very young and they competed well today," Hostager added. "That will provide some great momentum, not just for next season, but for the upcoming track season. I'm very proud of how hard they've worked all fall and there weren't too many MVC teams ahead of us today, which bodes well for our future."
 
NCAA Midwest Regional
Nov. 11, 2016 – Iowa City Iowa
Ashton Cross Country Course
 
Drake Individual Men's Results
10k – 194 runners
7. Reed Fischer, 30:29.8
134. Joshua Yeager, 32:47.0
141. Chris Kaminski, 32:53.3
150. Kyle Brandt, 33:09.8
154. Kyle Cass, 33:20.5
162. Matt Cozine, 33:32.1
 
Drake Individual Women's Results
6k – 235 runners
114. Bailee Cofer, 22:06.5
196. Olivia Rogers, 23:19.7
203. Morgan Garcia, 23:25.5
208. Mickey Cole, 23:33.2
216. Meghan Kearney, 23:53.0
220. Paige Nicholson, 24:01.4