Bradley’s track and field program has hosted several dominant runners during head coach Andrew Carlson’s three-year tenure, but rarely has one finished with multiple top-five finishes in the first few outdoor meets of the season, let alone top-two.
That’s exactly what junior Kaden Kingsmith did earlier this year at the WashU Distance Carnival and the Stanford Invitational, clocking in times of 1:47.55 and 1:47.42, respectively.
And he was just getting started.
“It is great to start the season off with strong performances,” Kingsmith said. “Getting the regional time early was a big focus for us this season. These results are far from a surprise, though, as a significant amount of smart, focused training has gone into them.”
Most recently, he ran a 1:48.03 at the Bryan Clay Invitational alongside three other runners who took top-10 program record times in the 800m. With three weeks left until the Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Championships, he’ll have more opportunities to keep setting school-best times.
“It’s great to start out strong,” Kingsmith said. “But my eyes are set on regionals and important races later this season.”
An athletic-based upbringing
Brought up in Calgary, Alberta, Kingsmith was also interested in other sports at a young age, having played at least one year of volleyball, basketball, soccer and badminton in addition to cross country and track. But it would be someone from the hockey community who would help him find his footing with running.
“Playing all these sports, specifically hockey and baseball at a high level prior to track, taught me how to harness my natural competitiveness and handle high-pressure situations in sport,” Kingsmith said. “I first got introduced to track by my hockey coach who was also a coach for the Calgary Spartans – my home track club now. My first track season was the summer of 2019, and I saw dramatic improvement and surprisingly made U16 nationals, where I placed seventh.”
“This got me hooked on the sport, and by age 16, I made the decision to drop all my other sports and to commit myself to becoming the best middle-distance athlete I could be with the goal of going D1,” Kingsmith added.
Having honed his skills at Rundle College High School before coming to Bradley, Kingsmith’s defining moment would come at the U18 Canadian championships.
At one of the biggest events of his career, he took gold in the 1500m and 3000m, cementing his status as one of the top long-distance runners in Canada and helping him realize he had made the right decision.
“Winning the U18 national titles in the 1500m and 3000m was one of the first real signs that I could compete at a high level in this sport,” Kingsmith said. “Looking back at that season now, it makes me very grateful for the opportunities I was given to succeed before I had proved myself to anyone. It’s very cool to see the progression in times and results that I have had since then.”
Once Kingsmith reached his senior year, his options for where to attend college were almost unlimited. With multiple offers from Division I schools, he eventually decided to continue his cross country and track careers in Peoria.
After learning more about Bradley, it seemed to him that the university checked all the boxes – not just athletically, but academically as well.
“Bradley provided me with the best opportunity to chase my long-term goals,” Kingsmith said. “Something that is very special at Bradley and contributed significantly to my decision was the team dynamic between all the guys. Bradley also has a strong engineering school, which was another key factor.”
Chasing the Hilltop
Kingsmith competed in only one cross country meet and eight indoor track meets during his freshman year, skipping the outdoor season entirely. While he began his indoor college career with a first-place finish in the 1000m and had just recently gotten silver in the 800m at the U20 Canadian championships, he found himself having to jump many new hurdles.
“I struggled in my first year at Bradley. I went from running a 1:51 in high school to a 1:56 as a freshman indoors,” Kingsmith said. “That indoor season especially was difficult for me as I was adjusting to a completely new training environment and college life. It was motivating but at the same time frustrating to see others run so well for the team while I couldn’t seem to figure it out.”
Even though his first season didn’t go how he wanted it to, Kingsmith still had loads of potential on a team head-coached by Andrew Carlson, who helped him keep believing in himself.
“Fortunately, I have a very strong support system back home that I could rely on while I was still figuring myself out at Bradley,” Kingsmith said. “My success so far this season is an accumulation of a lot of lessons learned from my first two years at Bradley. Although things didn’t look promising in my first track season as a Brave, I always had a strong belief in my ability and knew that I was capable of competing with the best in the NCAA, given some time.”
Going into his sophomore year, he would get to know two people who would help him succeed as a whole.
Assistant coach Mallory Mulzer arrived during the 2024-25 season and began working directly with many of the runners on the cross country and track teams, including Kingsmith himself.
“When I arrived at Bradley, I was extremely excited to work with the group,” Mulzer said. “Kaden was one of the first people I met here. The 800 is an event you can approach in different ways, and we had a lot of conversations from the beginning on what could help him improve, what works for him and areas to focus on training-wise and mentality-wise, so I knew it would be really fun to work with him. I’m really lucky to be a part of the process with someone like him because he works really hard, races really hard and loves the event, so it makes the day-to-day really enjoyable as a coach.”
Another addition to the team was fellow 800m runner Isaac Lind. Kingsmith and Lind have trained together for a couple of years now, building a great friendship, getting to know each other as athletes and pushing one another to keep getting better.
“Having trained with Kaden over the past two years of my college career, I really got to understand him as an athlete,” Lind said. “If I were to describe him, I would say he is a silent leader. He doesn’t have to say much to motivate those around him. He simply leads by example and is very meticulous with everything he does, from his nutrition to his body maintenance. He’s always on top of his work to make sure he’s performed to the best of his abilities, and it’s hard not to try to replicate. He has really pushed me to be a better athlete because he has been in my position before.”
“When he came in as a freshman, he had a lot of upsides, but his freshman year did not go the way he wanted it to,” Lind added. “Instead of faltering in his drive for success, he continued to pursue being the best. In return for this unwavering commitment to running, he earned the distinction of being one of the best athletes in the NCAA now. This has pushed me more than I’ve realized. I had a large potential coming into my freshman year and had lackluster performances, but through his example, I kept pushing toward success, and this year I have turned the tide with my performances.”
With the new relationships he made, he carried his newfound momentum to the MVC Indoor Track and Field Championships, where Kingsmith, Zachary Balzer, Matthew Burnett and Jack Crull took first place in the men’s distance medley relay (DMR). Then individually, he placed second in the 800m, just 0.18 seconds behind Braves teammate Jamie Phillips.
Those performances led him to be named to the MVC All-Conference Indoor Track and Field team in both events, but he knew that was only scratching the surface of what he could do with Bradley.
“I was pleased with the indoor 800m results at the conference because we had a Bradley 1-2 finish, and I beat some guys who had been running better than me that season,” Kingsmith said. “Winning the DMR was a bonus to what was a very successful weekend for not only me but the entire team. Getting a taste of success at that meet left me hungry for more.”
Kingsmith’s coaches acknowledged the hard work they witnessed him put in to achieve these results.
“For Coach Carlson and I, a main part of working with different people in the group is having them do difficult things in training and then having conversations that help reflect on what could be working or what may need to be adjusted,” Mulzer said. “A lot of time was spent trying to balance working on Kaden’s strengths as an 800 runner while also hitting on the areas he needed to grow in without compromising his racing abilities. He hit a lot of different workouts to grow quicker as well as improve his range to race in longer events, but also learned a lot from all the different race situations he was in.”
The next step
After redshirting for the cross country and indoor track seasons, Kingsmith has two more years of eligibility, but he still has the rest of the outdoor track season ahead of him. And with not many regular season meets left, it’s coming down to crunch time for the MVC Outdoor Championships, which he stressed are very big for him, the team and the coaching staff as a whole.
“It is great to start out strong, but my eyes are set on regionals and important races later this season,” Kingsmith said. “I have aspirations to be one of the best middle-distance athletes in Bradley history and to get the Bradley name out there on the national stage.”
He isn’t the only one with plans for the future.
“Our hope is to just always be improving from one year to the next, and as a coach, my goal is to help them reach their individual goals, which also helps reach the team goal,” Mulzer said. “Everyone has different goals in mind, but they always include making it through the postseason as far as possible as well as making conference finals and trying to score as many points as possible at the MVC Outdoor Championships.”
Kingsmith’s journey with the Braves has been an amazing roller coaster ride, and no matter what happens next, he will inspire many current and future Bradley runners with all that he’s done.
“Kaden means a lot to me,” Lind said. “I know how good he is, and I feel confident saying that, by the time he leaves Bradley, he will be one of the best runners we have seen in Bradley history. I see him do the work that a top athlete in the NCAA would do, and soon, people will see that work come to fruition. I hope to join Kaden, [Jamie] Phillips, [Matthew] Burnett and [Jaxson] Copelin as one of the best 800 runners in the country. I get to witness what it takes to be one of the best, and I know that with consistent training and unwavering discipline in my craft, I will join them in the near future.”
