Bradley cross-country runners did not miss a beat despite not running competitively in 2020. On Monday, Braves women finished second in the 5K race, while the men’s team finished third in the 8K at the Lipscomb Winter Classic.
Head coach Darren Gauson admits his team is still not at its physical peak due to the lack of collective practice time over the past two semesters.
“I’d definitely say we are a little further behind than normal,” Gauson said. “The thing is that it is the same for everybody, so we are pretty solid right now.”
In Nashville, however, Bradley’s runners reestablished their strong position against Missouri Valley Conference opposition. This was the only meet the Braves participated in to prepare for the MVC Championship on March 3.
The women trailed only Butler in the team standings while beating Loyola and Illinois State. Braves and Ramblers were tied at 80 points, but Bradley won the tiebreaker with better individual performances from third, fourth and fifth place finishers.
Freshman Wilma Nielsen — who won back-to-back MVC Female Track Athlete of week awards — led the Braves with a seventh-place finish with a time of 17:40.1. Senior McKenzie Altmayer finished 14th with a mark of 17:47.3 and sophomore Sophie McDonnell rounded out the top 15 running in 17:57.9. Junior Emma Ehrhardt and freshman Ashley Maguire rounded the Braves top five with 17th and 27th place finishes with times of 18:12.6 and 18:33.7, respectively.
The men ranked third in the meet with 89 points, finishing behind Butler and Lipscomb while also beating conference rivals ISU and Loyola.
Junior Alec Danner led Bradley with a 14th place finish with a time of 25:18.1. Junior Matt Aho finished 16th, running in 25:25.5, followed by freshman Michael Rubello at 18th with a time of 25:33.3. To close out the Braves top five were freshman Max Dieterich at 20th and senior Alec Hartman at 21st with times of 25:33.4 and 25:34.2.
This season, the Braves will be relying on a lot of underclassmen. The young talent has already proven effective for Bradley as four of BU’s 10 point-scorers in Nashville were running competitive cross-country for the first time in their college career.
“[On the women’s side] we have [Julia and Wilma] Nielsen, who are both ranked in the top 40 in the nation,” Gauson said. “I think we are a lot stronger as a team this season, so we are poised to have a good year this year.”
The men’s team is looking to become the first team in MVC history to win six consecutive conference championships in any sport. Despite losing some more seasoned runners on the team, the squad will be the favorites to win the conference this year.
“The whole year, we have been talking a lot about winning six in a row,” Gauson said. “It has never been done in MVC history; the conference is over a hundred years old and it has never been done.”
The Braves will now be preparing for the conference championship on March 3 in Evansville, Indiana. The men will be looking to set the record for consecutive conference titles while the women will try and win their fifth title in seven years.
