Despite Bradley’s track and field’s more experienced members resting for the MVC Championship this weekend, the Braves’ freshman and younger runners were still forceful on the rubber to finish the regular season at the Iowa Open last Friday.
Rodrigo Alvarez Gonzalez had the best performance as the freshman led the way with a men’s 3000 meter winning time of 8:34:92.
Freshman Caleb Lind finished third in the men’s mile with a time of 4:14.28. Trailing close behind Lind was fellow freshman Caden Simone. Simone received fourth place in the same race with a time of 4:15.46.
In addition to the men’s side, the women were just as successful. Freshman Peyton Schieppe achieved second place in the women’s mile at 4:52:15 and her teammate, freshman Julia Nielsen, finished fourth with her time being 4:57:85. Another freshman with a notable performance was Lily Strauss who placed third with a time of 10:23.00 in the women’s 3000m.
In the shorter races, sophomore Amiyah Davis ran a 25:39 in the women’s 200 meter. Lastly, freshman Leah Thames did not break another record like she had in previous meets, but she did get third place in the women’s 60 meters with a 7.89.
“I feel that I just get in a mode where I go out there and do what I do,” Thames said. “I don’t limit myself, I just go out there and do what I gotta do.”
Bradley was picked fourth for both sides of the program in the MVC’s preseason championship poll, which was released Thursday. Braves head coach Darren Gauson believes the latest bit of preparation leading up to the championship will pay off.
“We trained pretty hard as a group last week,” Gauson said. “All our harder preparation is done, we are just easing back into some lighter preparation going into MVC.”
The Braves will be at the MVC Indoor Championship in Chicago starting this Sunday and a champion will be crowned on Monday.
