Who Will Shine at the Les Duke Invitational?

The kids are back in school, the air is getting crisp, and a few leaves have started to turn. Smells like cross country season. Many collegiate teams dusted off their spikes for meets last weekend and are some already gearing up for their second competition.

Grinnell is hosting a large invitational this weekend, the Les Duke Invitational, that includes a few Minnesota squads. Let us know which local team has your vote of confidence by answering this question:

Yes/No: Will the Bethel women place highest among all Minnesota teams (Men and Women) at Les Duke Invitational at Grinnell, Iowa on Saturday?

Bethel returns national champion Marie Borner and three other all-MIAC cross country runners (Alex Potter, Kristin Mork, and Heather Jelen). Bethel was 2nd in the MIAC and 19th at Nationals last year and return the entire squad. Other ranked teams at Les Duke include Carleton women led by All-American Simone Childs-Walker and St. Olaf men fronted by All-American Dubuol Ruon.

In the latest DIII rankings, the Bethel women were 13th, the Carleton women 19th, and St. Olaf men were 32nd. At the 2008 Les Duke Invitational, Carleton was 2nd, Bethel 3rd and St. Olaf 4th on the women's side, while Hamline men finished 3rd.

The Bethel women opened their 2009 season with a perfect score victory in a dual meet against Augsburg.

To play our game, simply type "yes" or "no" into the subject line of an e-mail and send it to us at DtBFantasy [AT] gmail [DOT] com before 9:30 A.M. CDT, Saturday, September 12th. Please put your answer in the subject line of the e-mail and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail. We will continue to offer a bonus for participants making their debut in Yes/No - a correct answer will be worth two points for any first-time players.

My answer: Yes

Last week’s question was: Will Jason Lehmkuhle run faster than 60:00 at the New Haven 20k on Labor Day? The correct answer was “Yes.” Lehmkuhle ran a PR 59:04 to place third at New Haven. He appears ultra-fit in his preparation for TC 10 miler and NYC Marathon this fall.

You can find the all the results and leaderboards at DtB Fantasy Corner.

Good luck and thanks for playing Yes/No on DtB!