The Bradley cross country teams are continuing to make a name for themselves on the national scene after a pair of impressive performances at the Notre Dame Invitational.
The race was split into two divisions: blue and gold. The men raced in the blue division, which is known for being a bit more prestigious, while the women raced in the gold division to face familiar conference opponents.
The women’s team won the gold division in a field of 28 teams. Junior Hannah Witzak finished fifth overall, running the fifth fastest time in school history at 17:24. Sophomore Gabby Jaurez and senior Lauren Cunningham finished ninth and 15th overall, respectively.
“It was a very good meet for both teams,” head coach Darren Gauson said. “We wanted to race the women in the gold race because we wanted to run them in that type of field because typically it was a lot of MVC opponents. We were able to do very well and beat not only all the MVC opponents, but everyone else that was in the race as well.”
Gauson was pleased with the way his team ran and how they placed in a very competitive field.
“I think we had a lot of breakthrough performances on the women’s side,” Gauson said. “That gives them a lot of confidence and a lot of momentum going into our big home meet on Friday.”
The men’s team finished 10th overall in a blue division field that featured nationally-ranked programs such as North Carolina State, Florida State and Texas. Junior Michael Ward lead the Braves, finishing 21st overall with a time of 24:08. Seniors Patrick Campbell, Caleb Beck and freshman Jake Hoffert packed up within six seconds, which played a large part in the 10th overall finish.
“The men did an awesome job,” Gauson said. “We’ve been talking a lot about having a breakthrough performance where we put Bradley men’s cross country on the national stage, and we were really able to do that at Notre Dame by beating a lot of power five schools. I think the guys did a really great job of working together as a team, and we’ve got a lot of momentum from Notre Dame, and hopefully we can build that toward our home meet and our pre-national meet.”
The Braves also ran a home meet at Donovan Park last Friday, where they featured some of the team’s younger runners.
Junior Nicole Alfano won the women’s individual crown after finishing the 5K race in 19:18. The rest of the women’s team followed suit sweeping the top seven spots.
On the men’s side Steffen Uhrich placed second overall, finishing the 8K race in 25:55. Redshirt freshmen Kerry Gschwendtner and David Rodriguez finished in fifth and sixth place with times of 26:38 and 27:03, respectively.
“When you’ve got a big roster like we do, it’s important to allow your number 11 to 20 runners other competitive opportunities to get better,” Gauson said. “It’s about gaining experience and allowing them to compete and for some of the younger athletes allowing them opportunities to develop. When there’s graduation or injuries those people will be able to slot right into the roster and help us continue our tradition.”
Both teams will run at 2 p.m. this afternoon at Newman Golf Course in the Bradley Classic. Gauson said his teams plan to compete hard at the home meet and try to build confidence going into championship season.
“The women are undefeated in regular season competition, so we want to keep the momentum going and win our home meet at the Classic,” Gauson said. “On the men’s side, we’re split between two meets. We’ve got a lot of our main varsity group running in Terre Haute at pre-nationals, then it will be our numbers 7 to 15 running our home meet.”
