WHAT'S AHEAD: The Drake women's track and field team will close out its regular season competing in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Championship in Normal, Ill., this Friday through Sunday.

Activities start at 10:30 a.m. Friday with junior Ari Curtis (Fort Collins, Colo.) competing in the heptathlon. Finals also will be held in the women's hammer throw at 12 p.m., women's javelin at 4 p.m. and women's 10,000-meter run at 6:30 p.m. Finals will be held in the women's shot put, long jump, high jump, pole vault, and women's 3,000 steeplechase Saturday, along with qualifying rounds in six running events: 100, 200, 400, 800, 100
hurdles and 400 hurdles. Sunday's schedule starts at 12 p.m. with the triple jump and finishes at 3:55 p.m. with the 4x400 relay.

LAST YEAR: Then Drake sophomore Casey McDermott  (Newton, Iowa) was third in the women's 1500 in 4:31.82 at the 2009 State Farm Missouri
Valley Conference Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship. Then Drake junior Nicole Braunsdorf (St. Francis, Wis.) was fourth in the
women's 5,000 in 17:32.42. McDermott also finished eighth in the women's 3,000 steeplechase in 11:01.40. Then Drake sophomore Ari
Curtis finished seventh in the heptathlon scoring 4,291 points.

SCHOOL RECORD HOLDERS: Four members of the Drake women's track and field team have combined to own seven individual school records. In
addition, Drake has set school records in the distance medley and shuttle hurdle relays this spring.

Junior Ari Curtis has played a role in five of the school marks. Curtis, who set a school indoor mark in the pentathlon this past winter, set a school record in the heptathlon with 4,998 points en route to a second-place finish at the Kansas Relays. Curtis set a school record in the 400 hurdles for the third time this spring by placing sixth in 59.03 seconds at the Drake Relays April 24, to lower her previous school mark of 59.27 set April 10 at the Jim Duncan Invitational.

Curtis ran the 800 leg on the distance medley relay that finished sixth in the Drake Relays women's university division in 11 minutes 31.96 seconds to better the previous school mark of 11:32.35 set in 1994. Junior Casey McDermott got things started by running the open 1,200-meter leg, followed by junior Beth Hamling (Council Bluffs, Iowa) running the 400, then Curtis and senior Nicole Braunsdorf anchoring the 1,600 leg.

Curtis came back to run the anchor on the shuttle hurdle relay which set a school mark of 59.74, breaking the school record of 1:01.73 set in 2004. Other members of the record-setting shuttle hurdle relay were the freshmen trio of Marissa Smith (Ajax, Ontario, Canada), Emily James (Clive, Iowa) and Sarah Yeager (Ottumwa, Iowa).

Nicole Braunsdorf, who competed in the 5,000 at the 2009 NCAA Midwest Regional, owns the school indoor mark in the mile (4:48.91) set in 2009. Casey McDermott was a 2009 NCAA Regional qualifier in the 3,000 steeplechase after setting a school record of 10:44.48 en route to seventh-place finish at the 2009 Drake Relays.

Junior Johanna Sprang (New Brighton, Minn.) set the school indoor mark in the pole vault (11-9) at the MVC indoor meet and then tied the school outdoor pole vault mark of 11 feet 7.75 inches en route to tying for 18th place in the women's university-college field at the Drake Relays.

McDermott and Braunsdorf each ran personal bests in the university-college 1,500 to place fifth (4:28.48) and seventh (4:28.81), respectively.

OTHERS TO WATCH: Drake junior Tyse Samani (Kansas City, Mo.) captured the high jump title at the 2010 MVC Indoor Championship, leaping 5-7.
Junior teammate Michelle Mitchell (Brookfield, Wis.) was ninth at 5-5.

FINAL TUNE-UP: In a final tune-up before the upcoming MVC Championships, three members of the Drake women's track team competed
at the Nebraska Open last Saturday in Lincoln, Neb.

Casey McDermott was third in the women's 1,500-meter run in four minutes 30.58 seconds, while teammate Nicole Braunsdorf was fourth in
4:32.00. Drake senior Deidra Dirth (Apple Valley, Minn.) was fourth in the women's discus at 150 feet six inches. Dirth won the women's
discus at the Central Open last Friday in Pella, Iowa, with a personal best throw of 156-9.