The Drake University track and field teams are set to travel to Terre Haute, Ind., for the 2018 Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships May 11-13. The championship, hosted by Indiana State, will have all portions of all three days aired on ESPN+.
 
Action for the Bulldogs begins Friday with the multi-events in the morning followed by the javelin at 4 p.m. Events on the track begin at 6 p.m. Competition resumes Saturday at 3 p.m. before finals begin Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
 
Senior Mary Young (Urbandale, Iowa) will look to defend her 100-meter hurdles title from a year ago. Young has finished in the top-five in every outdoor meet this season and currently holds the third best time in the Valley of 13.79. Fellow hurdler, Victoria Coombe (Centennial, Colo.) aims to continue her strong junior campaign just weeks after setting a personal best time of 1:00.80 in the 400-meter hurdles at the Tom Botts Invitational. Her mark leads the Valley by nearly a second and ranks as the sixth fastest time in school history.
 
Taryn Rolle (Nassau, The Bahamas) is another Bulldog aiming to add an MVC title to her resume to build upon her second-place triple jump finish from last year's championships. Earlier this season after just narrowly missing a school record multiple times, Rolle set the Drake triple jump record at the Jim Duncan Invitational with a mark of 41-8.5 (12.71m) that ranks 59^th in the NCAA this season.
 
On the men's side sophomore Caulin Graves (Kansas City, Mo.) returns to the MVC Championships a year after taking fourth and second, respectively, in the 100 and 200 meters last season. At the 2018 Drake Relays presented by Hy-Vee, Graves tied a personal best 100m time of 10.51 which ranks fourth this season in the Valley. Kundai Maguranyanga (Glen Zorah, Zimbabwe) rounds out the Valley top 10 in the 100m while Maguranyanga also ranks 3^rd in the 200m.
 
The Bulldogs also have a pair of javelin throwers in Max Harlan (Hopkins, Minn.) and Jake Taylor (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) who are both coming off career performances at the Drake Relays. Harlan and Taylor rank fourth and fifth in the Valley with marks of 172-3 and 171-1.
 
In the MVC's annual pre-championship poll, the Drake men were projected to finish sixth overall while the women were selected seventh. Illinois State was the unanimous pick for both the men's and women's titles.