It didn’t come as too much of a surprise that both the men’s and the women’s cross country teams won this past weekend at the 30th annual Bradley Intercollegiate meet. The surprises, however, came in how each team won.
The women blew away their competitors, scoring 15 of a possible 15 points in their race, while the men were nearly perfect with a score of 19, four off a perfect score.
The end result was a resounding victory for both sides, which was to be expected from two of the top teams in the region. Head coach Darren Gauson, as well as the rest of the team, was pleased with the performances.
“I thought we did very well on both sides,” Gauson said. “To pick up the perfect score on the women’s side was great … [the men] were almost perfect, but they were a little disappointed because the expectations are little bit different.”
The men would’ve liked to perform a little better considering the makeup of their roster and past performances dating back to last season. Senior Michael Ward, who won the men’s individual title, said he was excited about the win, but agreed with Gauson that the result wasn’t exactly what they were looking for.
“It was really positive, [and I’m] really happy,” Ward, who ran a 24:30.23, said. “[But], we already have our benchmark from last year. Collectively, compared to what we did last year, it wasn’t a significant jump forward to where we wanted to be. It still was a step forward, so it’s promising to where we’re going to go. We have the pieces, we just have to put them into place.”
The men took six of of the top seven spots to earn the definitive victory. Seniors Patrick Campbell and Caleb Beck finished second and third while junior Taylor Floyd Mews, redshirt-freshman Jake Hoffert and sophomore Will Anderson rounded out the top six.
Guason raved about the women’s team, especially sophomore Hannah Witczak, who won the women’s individual title.
“Hannah Witczak was huge for us,” Gauson said. “She had an outstanding performance. She ran that course in 19 minutes in high school and Friday ran it in 16:48, which is one of the quicker times on that course.”
Witczak said she was even a little taken aback by how well she performed.
“Over the summer, I was training really hard,” Witczak said. “I was definitely a little bit surprised [with the result]. But I think my training really showed in this race. ”
Witczak said the women were happy with the way they performed and how they have been pushing each other throughout the beginning of the season. Gauson agreed, saying he believes the women have bought into the team culture.
“Being able to carry on [that culture] from last year is pretty awesome,” Gauson said. “The women felt great. They executed our game plan pretty much to the ‘T.’ Everyone across the board did well.”
Following Witczak were senior Lauren Cunningham, junior Natalie Burant, sophomore Gabby Juarez and freshman Bailey Johnson in the top five.
The teams ran in uncomfortable heat last Friday as temperatures were up to the high-80’s. Guason, Witczak and Ward said while it was a bit uncomfortable, they didn’t think about it while they ran because they didn’t want to make excuses for themselves.
“We talked about it, and we don’t make excuses,” Gauson said. “If it’s high-80’s at the conference meet, we have to go out there and compete no matter what. It’s about executing a performance.”
The “no excuses” mentality feeds into the overall team-first winning culture that has been cultivated on the team. In a week, the Braves will travel to Notre Dame to face various other teams with similar mentalities. It will be the first big test for Bradley, and both the men and women are looking forward to it.
“Before Notre Dame, we’re definitely going to taper down our training a bit so we can freshen ourselves up, mentally and physically,” Ward said. “Now that we’ve got the rust-buster out of the way, everyone should be ready to go perform.”
