Bradley track and field competed in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships on Feb. 23-24 to close out their indoor season and turned in numerous stand-out performances.
The meet started with the preliminaries and distance medley on Sunday, where competitors tried to qualify for the final race in each event on Monday.
In the women’s distance medley, sophomore Kaitlyn Sheppard, junior Amiyah Davis, freshman Lena Stolla and freshman Trixie Wraith took home first and broke the MVC record with a time of 11:30.72.
With her performances in the distance medley and later in the mile, Wraith earned the Freshman of the Year award from the conference.
“I think Trixie is just starting to scratch the surface of how good she can be,” head coach Andrew Carlson said. “Trixie Wraith is going to have a big impact on the conference going forward and eventually at the NCAA level as she is just getting started.”
The men’s distance medley saw sophomore Caleb Lind, senior Will Smith, sophomore Brock Rice and freshman Jaxson Copelin take sixth place with a time of 10:15.38.
In the women’s 60-meter prelim, freshman Jaela Pierson finished in 21st and in the men’s 60m prelim, junior Eli Rieker took fifth, qualifying for the 60m finals where he finished in eighth place.
Rieker competed again in the men’s 200m prelim but did not qualify for the final race, barely missing out with a ninth-place finish.
In the men’s 800m, senior Jack Crull and Smith qualified for the final race, placing in second and fifth, respectively, while senior Max Dieterich, Rice and Copelin missed out, finishing in ninth, 15th and 19th. In the men’s 800m, Crull took home another first-place finish for Bradley, setting a new school record and personal best in the process with a time of 1:49.00.
In the women’s 800m prelim, senior Julia Nielsen and junior Abigail Hancock finished in first and second to qualify for the finals, while junior Andriana Erotocrito finished in 15th. Nielsen took first for the third first-place finish of the meet and Hancock took fifth, finishing just slightly behind Nielsen.
With her performance at this meet and throughout the season, Nielsen secured the MVC’s Most Valuable and Most Outstanding Athlete awards.
“I didn’t expect to win both of them, so I was really happy with that,” Nielsen said. “It was a nice way to finish the season for sure.”
Crull maintained his great performance in the men’s mile prelim by finishing second alongside teammates Dieterich, freshman Zach Balzer and Lind, all of whom qualified for the final race. In the finals, Crull took second with Dieterich finishing right behind him in third place, while Balzer and Lind finished sixth and ninth, respectively.
Crull was happy with his performance, taking home a first and second-place finish at the meet.
“It’s an amazing feeling honestly,” Crull said. “It just makes me so excited for just this whole year and what’s possible. I am looking forward to trying to get new PRs in the 1500m and the 800m courses for the outdoor season.”
In the women’s mile prelim, Nielsen, Wraith and Hancock took second, fifth and sixth, respectively, to qualify for the final race while sophomore Julia de la Piedra Stijas finished in 14th.
In the women’s mile finals, Hancock finished in seventh, but Wraith and Nielsen broke the MVC record, each setting a new personal best. Nielsen took home her second first-place finish of the meet and Wraith took second.
Nielsen and Wraith were ecstatic after the race and elated to succeed with their teammate.
“Trixie and I are like best friends, and we push each other in training so I’m really pleased that she did so well,” Nielsen said. “She’s only a freshman and she has so much in front of her as well so we are really happy with that.”
Sophomore Nadia Potgieter, Wraith, Sheppard and sophomore Anna Perry competed in the women’s 3000m, where Wraith took home second, Potgieter finished third, Sheppard took ninth and Perry took 14th.
In the men’s 3000m, senior Michael Rebello took third, freshman Jayde Rosslee took fourth, freshman Parker Nold took 19th, Balzer finished 22nd and Lind finished 24th.
On the field side, junior Shae Fuller finished sixth in the women’s long jump.
The event finished with the men’s and women’s 4×400 relays, where the women’s team, made up of Campbell, Stolla, Erotocritou and Davis finished seventh and the men’s team, made up of Westcott, freshman Kaden Kingsmith, senior Mason Jones and Rice finished in eighth.
Carlson was very pleased with how his team performed this season, as they took home four MVC titles, ten podium finishes and broke many personal, school and MVC records throughout the year.
“This weekend was awesome,” Carlson said. “Over the course of a conference meet, when you get that many people together over two days there’s always going to be ups and downs, and I think that is probably what I was most proud of. We were able to persevere through those low points, and I saw people supporting each other and obviously, we just had some great performances too.”
With the conclusion of the MVC Championships, the Braves now have a month-long training break to prepare them for the upcoming outdoor track and field season, where they look to continue their momentum.
“Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to start doing more strength training,” Crull said. “It’s going to get hard of course, but it’s going to be fun when we start racing again and I’m excited for our first outdoor race.”
The Braves begin their outdoor season at the Raleigh Raceways on March 28.
