Nicola Jansen and Alec Danner are no strangers to earning hardware, earning Freshman of the Year and All-Conference honors from the Missouri Valley Conference, respectively, last year.
They both added MVC Runners of the Week honors to their lists of accolades after setting new program records last Friday, helping the women’s and men’s Bradley cross country teams finish in the top five at the Bradley Pink Classic.
In the women’s 6K race at Newman Golf Course, the Braves finished third out of 38 schools. The sophomore Jansen finished in second place out of a field of 306 and not far behind was senior Tyler Schwartz, who placed 15th.
Jansen broke the Bradley 6K record with a time of 19:57.4 and finished atop every runner from the nine Missouri Valley schools present. She finished just over three seconds behind first place with the record-breaking run.
The sophomore from Pretoria, South Africa has already made a statement in the Valley by winning the MVC Freshman of the Year award last season. She also finished in third place at the 2021 MVC Championship and made the All-MVC team.
Out of 35 schools, the Bradley men finished fifth in the 8K race with Braves occupying finishing spots between 10th and 12th place. Danner, senior George Watson and graduate runner Charlie Parrish led the Braves as Danner broke a school record with a 23:46.2 finish.
Danner, a graduate student for the Braves, took 11th out of the 291 runners in the field. He finished in fifth place last season at the MVC Tournament but looks to make one last run for the crown in his final season.
After an impressive meet at home, Bradley hits the road today to compete in the Illini Open in Champaign for their last meet of 2022 before the MVC Tournament the following weekend.
