This past weekend, Bradley track and field took part in multiple opportunities to flex their muscles and did so in a fashion that has become very familiar just a few weeks into the indoor season.
Instead of going to a third planned meet in Nashville, Tennessee, Bradley head coach Darren Gauson opted to send 14 runners to Boston for the David Hemery Valentine Invitational and the rest of the team to Michigan for the Grand Valley State Big Meet. This ended up working in Bradley’s favor, as six runners broke school records when the weekend closed.
Sophomore Nicola Jansen and graduate Matt Aho are some of the best runners in the country and their times showed just that, with Jansen setting a new Bradley women’s 3000 meter record at 9:13.6 and Aho holding the top spot in Bradley history in the men’s 5000 meters at 14:06.86.
“Nicola, off the top of my head, [is] 63rd in the nation and then Matt’s certainly in the top 100,” Gauson said.
The other four records broken this weekend were by sophomore Eli Rieker in the men’s 60 meters running a 6.99 and freshman Leah Thames who clocked in at 7.80 in the women’s 60 meter and a 24.96 in the women’s 200 meter. Redshirt sophomore Wilma Nielsen sealed off the smashed times with 2:02.91 in the women’s 800 meters.
In preparation for the 3000m, Jansen had already done heavy amounts of work beforehand.
“For this meet specifically, we tried to focus on running with the group because I tend to go out in front and just lead the whole race and I don’t stick with the group,” Jansen said. “We knew going into this race that I wasn’t gonna be the fastest, so I should be able to run with the group. I practiced not taking the lead and working with my teammates and that worked at the race because that’s what I did at the race.”
Heading into the meet, Gauson’s plan worked just how he had expected it.
“Gauson came up to me before the race and told me he wants me to have energy for the last [1,000 meters],” Jansen said. “I was just focusing on staying controlled throughout the race so that I’d have enough energy for the last [1,000 meters] to go and not let people pass me.”
Having a couple teammates running with him in the 5k, Aho pushed hard enough to capture the school record.
“Just kind of doing distance for the last couple years kind of helps … [It] just made it easier having teammates in there,” Aho said.
Heading into the MVC Indoor Championships at the end of February, Bradley looks to be in contention to win the conference, as both the mens and womens teams are positioned in the top halves of the Valley. There is no doubt that the strength on the distance side will favor the Braves, but they’ll have to steal some places outside of that realm if they hope to add to Gauson’s growing trophy shelf.
“We’ll be in the mix…a lot of momentum, a lot of excitement, a lot of top races, can get a lot of individual championships, and getting a lot of big points on the board would be big for us,” Gauson said.
Before the MVC Championships, the Braves will head to the Iowa Open in Iowa City, Iowa, today.
