Bradley cross country traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa this week to compete in the Missouri Valley Conference championships and left with excellent results.
Last year, during head coach Andrew Carlson’s first season as head coach, both the men’s and women’s teams finished in second place at the MVC championships with their best runners placing seventh and sixth place, respectively. The women’s team were the preseason favorites to win the conference, just edging out Belmont. The men’s team was close but beaten out by Drake before the season started.
The women’s team went first, winning the team title in the 6K and finishing 24 points ahead of Indiana State, which won the individual title. Junior Kaitlyn Sheppard led the Braves, finishing in third place at 20 minutes, 27 seconds. This was Sheppard’s first time leading the team at a meet this season, earning her the Scholar-Athlete of the Week award.
“I felt good, so I just put myself out there,” Sheppard said. “But I also did hold back a little bit, because the past races I’ve done this season, I’ve kind of just gone out really fast. When there was about halfway to go, I decided to go with the front people, and I felt really strong throughout the whole race.”
The rest of the women’s team performed well, too. Junior Nadia Potgieter finished in seventh with a time of 20:36. Senior Abigail Hancock took ninth, completing the run in 20:37, with junior Anna Perry finishing right behind her in tenth by a difference of 1.7 seconds. Freshman Sophia Cino rounded out the top five runners for the Braves, finishing in thirteenth at 20:44.
“I was really excited on the women’s side for that performance based on the fact that Kaitlyn hasn’t been our first runner this year,” Carlson said. “Our women’s team is so strong that we’ve had people step into roles they hadn’t had before, and we didn’t miss a beat. I just think our women’s team had a lot of different ways they could win.”
On the men’s side, the 8K was the race that won them their team title, beating out second-place Illinois State by nine points, who also went on to win the individual championship. The men were led by sophomore Jayde Rosslee, who ran an impressive 23:25 to clinch third place. Rosslee improved on his MVC championship time from last year by one minute and 33 seconds, earning him the Bradley October Athlete of the Month.
“I’m really happy with the way it went,” Rosslee said. “I think I did exactly what I thought I was going to do. I went in with a plan and executed pretty well. But to be honest, I’m more happy with how the team did.”
The team performance lived up to the merit of Rosslee’s words. Fifth-year senior Michael Rebello finished in fifth, clocking in at 23:34. Fellow fifth-year senior Jack Crull passed the finish line right behind him, as his 23:36 time was enough for sixth place. Junior Caleb Lind was able to secure thirteenth place, crossing the finish line with a time of 23:53. Rounding out the top five for the Braves was junior Caden Simone, who clocked in three seconds behind Lind and finished in fifteenth place.
“I think Jayde is continuing to show that he’s one of the better athletes that has come through Bradley,” Carlson said. “He ran really smart, as did Jack and Mike, but the key pieces come down to Caden and Caleb. You’re only as strong as your fifth man, so to have our fifth guy be all-conference honorable mention, I think that’s what really set us apart to win the team title.”
Even though the results on both sides were similar, the success stories for each side were different.
“There’s a special kind of pressure that comes with being picked to win, in which the women came in with all the first place votes,” Carlson said. “Then there’s also a special kind of pressure when you have underperformed a little bit throughout the season, and you have one big moment to make up for it, and the men did that.”
Looking towards the future, Bradley will run again next Friday at the NCAA Midwest Regionals. It will be in Peoria on the Newman Golf Course, which was the setting of the Bradley Pink Classic earlier this year. Both teams’ confidence couldn’t be higher after such a dominant performance last weekend.
“We’ve already run on that course this year, and I didn’t run that great over that course,” Sheppard said. “So I think placing third in the MVC [championships] has given me a lot more confidence that I can actually go out and do it. I’m just super confident to run again at our home course and see what I can do now.”
“If the stars align, I can do something special, not only me, but the whole team,” Rosslee said. “We’re a super young team, and we have so much potential, not only this year but going forward as well. I think we can go out in the Midwest regionals and put up a good fight with some of the best teams in the nation.”
The Braves need to channel their success from the conference championships into next week so they can advance to the national championship.
