This Valentine’s Day weekend, the Bradley track team traveled to Chicago and Boston, Mass. to compete in the Blue Demon Alumni Classic and David Hemery Valentine Invitational.
Throughout both tournaments, multiple runners set records and ranked in the top 10 in their races.
Several top 10 performers showed out for the Blue Demon Alumni Classic on Friday, including sophomores Carolina Martinez and Olivia Redpath, who both seemed ready to set records.
In the women’s 200m dash, Martinez ran the fourth fastest time in program history with 22.52 seconds, placing fourth overall for the race. Redpath finished fifth in the same race with a time of 25.24 seconds – officially the fifth fastest time in program history.
Martinez also had the second fastest 800m race time with 55.54 seconds, while Julia De Palma set the sixth fastest 400m program race time at 57.40 seconds.
The team’s success continued the next day at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston, where eight Bradley sprinters placed in the top 10 and broke program records.
Starting with the men’s 800m race, sophomore Jamie Phillips placed first with a time of 1:47.22. This time breaks his own school record he set Feb. 1, 2025, of 1.48.34 by one second. In the same race, David Locke placed fourth with a time of 1:49.23, achieving the fourth fastest time in Braves history.
The women’s 800m had success in the top 10 as well, with freshman Bente van Milligen having the 10th fastest program time with 2:10.67.
For the mile run, senior Trixie Wraith set the fourth fastest women’s time in program history with 4:41.21. For the men, sophomore Travis Gaffney ran the fourth-fastest program time with 4:03.71, and freshman Sawyer LeBlanc ran the eighth-fastest with 4:08.86.
For the 5000m race, senior Nadia Potgieter had the fourth fastest program time with 16:21.81, and junior Rhune Vanroose had the 10th fastest time with 16:53.80.
Following the successful weekend, the Braves will prepare to compete at the Alex Wilson Invitational in Notre Dame, on Saturday, Feb. 21.
