WICHITA, Kan. - This weekend the Wichita State University men's and women's cross country teams will split up to compete in their final regular-season meets before the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Championships later this month.

The Shocker men will compete at 5 p.m. Friday in the Bradley Classic at Newman Golf Course in Peoria, Ill. The Shocker women will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to compete at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Chile Pepper Festival.

The men's university 8,000-meters at Bradley will include several MVC teams including Bradley, Creighton, Drake and Northern Iowa, in addition to the Shockers. The meet will help serve as a preview of the MVC Championships scheduled for Oct. 30 in Terre Haute, Ind.

The Shocker men enter the meet ranked 15th in the Midwest Region by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Drake currently ranks 12th in the Midwest.

The 23rd annual Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival will take place at the University of Arkansas cross-country course, which is a combination of grass, cinder and uneven terrain.

The Wichita State women, ranked eighth in the Midwest, will compete in the women's collegiate 6K. Top-25 teams Arkansas, Texas and Iowa are registered to compete, as well as No. 29 Oklahoma State and Valley opponent Missouri State.

The Shockers divided into two teams for their last cross country outing as well.

Wichita State's top runners competed in the Oregon Bill Dellinger Invitational Oct. 1. The Shocker women finished sixth as a team in the 5K, led by Aliphine Tuliamuk's second-place individual finish in 16:46.63. The Shocker men finished seventh, paced by Marcos Bailon's 28th-place finish in the 8K (24:30.52).

Other Shocker runners competed Sept. 30 in the Planet Sub Invitational at Emporia State, with the women finishing second as a team and the men finishing seventh. Marissa Quillin finished ninth overall in the women' 5K (18:51.8) and Abel Assefa led the men with a 29th-place finish in the 8K (26:33.47).