Darren Gauson’s office in Renaissance Coliseum is unlike anyone else’s in the building.
The head cross country coach has seven championship trophies displayed along the windows, with one more occupying a shelf behind his desk and two others being relegated to the floor. There’s a lack of space for his riches, a good problem to have for any coach.
“I’ve been lucky I’ve had a lot of great athletes in here,” Gauson said. “Second place feels like I’m letting the team down or the department down, and [I’m] really pushing myself to win every single year.”
In just eight years on the Hilltop, Gauson has won 10 MVC cross country championships, including two in this year’s races. Totaling six with the men and four with the women, he coached at least one team to a title each year from 2015 to 2019 and got to double digits with the sweep in Terre Haute, Ind., on Oct. 28. He also coached the men’s side to their first NCAA Championship appearance in school history in 2018, as they finished 24th in the nation.
Out of all of Bradley’s current athletics coaches, no one has been more successful than Gauson. With a plethora of titles, honors and awards over the past eight years, Bradley is flirting with being one of the best cross country programs in Division I.
“We’re always looking toward a regional and national level and we feel like if we’re competing with the best teams in the country [and] in the region, we’re going to win conference championships because we set our standard extremely high,” Gauson said.
While the first five years of the Gauson era were filled with glee, the next two felt more like heartbreak. Both teams had runner-up finishes at the MVC Championship in 2020 and 2021 and the women had three straight second-place marks, with their last victory coming back in 2018.
However, with four top-five finishers on the women’s side and five top-20 finishers on the men’s side, this year’s MVC Championship looked a lot different.
“It’s so special because it shows our hard work and all the stuff that we went through,” senior Tyler Schwartz said. “Stuff that we do everyday to put it out there on the line for everyone to see and show ourselves what we’re capable of doing.”
Schwartz, one of just two women on the roster that were a part of that 2018 team, finished third at this year’s championship after sitting out last season with an injury. With her and race winner Nicola Jansen, the Bradley women were able to put up the second-best score in MVC history with 22 points.
“It’s just awesome to see every girl out there basically wanting to do the same thing and collectively doing it together is pretty cool,” Schwartz said.
Jansen’s success as only a sophomore is also something to be marveled at. She took home MVC Cross Country Freshman of the Year last season and followed it up by winning Female Cross Country Athlete of the Year this time around. Even in an individual sport, she knows how important it is to have a good support system – something that has helped guide her and the other Braves to their success.
“My keys to success are honestly the team [and] the team spirit and stuff carrying me through everything and the positivity and just the team spirit overall,” Jansen said. “The coaches as well, looking after us… I don’t think I would’ve achieved all of these things if it wasn’t for them.”
Graduate student Alec Danner, who took home third on the men’s side at this year’s championship and was the top Bradley men’s finisher at last year’s meet, is keenly aware of the history he and his teammates are making.
“It’s a winning tradition that’s been built from previous alumni,” Danner said. “Once you raise that bar, you don’t want to fall beneath those expectations. I think that is what pushes us forward.”
As with any great program, the success starts with recruiting. Born and raised in Scotland, Gauson has connections that allow him to land international names like the South African native Jansen or senior George Watson, who hails from England. Paired with Americans like Schwartz and Danner, the mix of talent on the team leads to exciting results.
“You need to recruit really well and find out who’s going to be successful at Bradley and who’s going to be a good fit academically and who you’re going to be able to coach,” Gauson said. “We put a lot of time and effort into the recruiting process and we really put a lot of time into showcasing our team and our energy and our camaraderie and our success and people buy into that.”
With many other top programs vying for the runners’ commitments, beating out the bigger schools is something that is essential for Bradley to compete on the national level. Schwartz, a state champion and Gatorade Player of the Year in Indiana, was being looked at by the likes of Michigan, Georgetown and Indiana.
Beyond getting the athletes to Peoria, it’s important that the runners develop once they arrive. According to Gauson, Jansen’s times were modest before she got to Bradley, but now she’s one of the top runners in the country. He also says Watson, Danner and Schwartz were all in the same boat as the sophomore.
“You have to be able to get great athletes in but then you have to develop them really well and keep them healthy too,” Gauson said.
The key to staying healthy starts with preparation. In any sport, training is essential to continuing success, and training for cross country is a grind. The workouts, weight lifting and dieting is extensive, but that commitment is what separates Bradley from the rest.
“The frustrating thing about running and a lot of athletics is that you can put in the work but might not immediately see the results,” Danner said. “Consistency is key and you can lose fitness really quickly, so just making sure that you build your life almost around being a successful runner is the way to become successful.”
With the team competing in the Midwest Regionals on Nov. 11, expectations are high for the best team in the Valley. Going up against Kansas, Oklahoma State and Illinois, among others, Gauson knows many things need to go right for either team to make it to the NCAA Championship; the Braves need to finish first or second out of the top 30 teams at the meet in order to automatically qualify. However, he still thinks they’ll put on a strong showing.
“It would be nice to have a year where both teams are in the top five,” Gauson said. “That’s pretty good when you think of the teams in our region.”
Coming off her win in Indiana, Jansen will be the name to watch for the Braves. As her head coach thinks she will qualify as an individual on the fourth-seeded women’s team, she’s already looking towards the squad’s bright future that includes all of their current runners.
“I think we’re getting so much stronger now,” Jansen said. “We have a lot of faster recruits coming in next year and we’re only going to get faster from here. I’m excited.”
As for Gauson, his sights have been set on the top of the mountain for a while now.
“My big goal is to have both teams [in the] National Cross Country championships in the same year, both finish in the top 25,” Gauson said. “That is why I get up at 6 a.m. and leave at 7 p.m. It’s an obsession.”
If Jansen has anything to say about it, Gauson will need to make some room on his windowsills.
“This is only the start.”
