The Braves track & field team had a busy weekend, as some team members competed in St. Louis for the Billiken Invitational, while the rest of the team made the trip to North Carolina for the Raleigh Relays. Both events were the first outdoor meet of the season for the athletes.
“It was fun to knock off all the jitters transitioning from indoor to outdoor,” sophomore Kyra Koontz said.
The Billiken Invitational featured 21 Bradley athletes competing on a windy day that featured many personal records, such as Koontz in the 100-meter hurdles with a new personal record of 14:82. The sophomore’s time was the fourth-best time in Bradley women’s track history and was good enough to finish third in the race. On the men’s side for the 110-meter hurdles, senior Miguel Agyei finished second at 15:16, which was also a personal best.
Koontz decided one PR was not enough, as she added her best performance in the long jump with 5.32 meters, which was good enough for second place and the fifth-best distance in program history.
“Coming into the outdoor season opening up with two PRs is huge for me because it shows I have potential to do better, and it is only the beginning, so that was really exciting,” Koontz said.
Sophomores Lily Strauss (4:54.31) and Olivia Harp (4:56.75) both put up strong showings in the 1,500 meters, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Sophomore Noah Costa finished third in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:02.70 on the men’s side and his five teammates all finished in the top 10.
Other top finishes came from Maya Henderson in the women’s 800 meters, finishing fifth and Jack Franklin in the men’s 5,000 meters, finishing third.
Although the team was separated by over 800 miles, the athletes and coaches stayed in contact with each other.
“They kept texting us to see how we were doing,” Koontz said. “We were texting them [and] seeing how they were doing, so even though we were across the country, we were still keeping up with each other.”
The Raleigh Relays featured 21 different Braves along with over 150 programs around America competing on ESPN+. The competition was very strong with many Power Five opponents in the three-day event.
“I like [competing on TV] because I can watch it again if I want to see the splits and maybe I can do something different,” sophomore runner Julia Nielsen said.
Day one began with the men’s 1,500 meters and men’s 5,000 meters, where Max Dieterich (3:47.82) finished 48th out of 200 runners, and Michael Rebello (14:16.68) finished 53rd out of 223.
The second day in Raleigh was a lot busier for the Braves and was highlighted by junior Hannah Ivy’s PR of 55:47 in the women’s 400 meters, which was good for 12th place out of 88. Sophia McDonnell finished 14th out of 36 in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase and her teammate Charlie Parrish finished 23rd out of 52 for the men’s 3000-meter steeplechase.
Freshman Nicola Jansen finished 20th out of 151 runners in the women’s 5,000 meters with a time of 16:12.12, a mark that is on pace to make the NCAA National Tournament.
The Braves’ final day at the Raleigh Relays was highlighted by Nielsen, the sophomore from Gothenburg, Sweden, who started off the outdoor season with a bang. She finished sixth out of 123 runners in the women’s 800m with a time of 2:06.83, just shy of her PR.
“I just wanted to run faster than I did indoors,” Nielsen said. “It just makes me more excited for the rest of the season.”
The Braves will regroup during the week and compete together in the Illinois State Redbird Invite tomorrow at the Redbird Track and Field Complex.
