When the Missouri Valley Conference cross country preseason rankings reared its irritating head, the Bradley men’s cross country team found itself exiled to third place.
However, head coach Darren Gauson and the men’s team dashed their way through the season and eventually found themselves favored to win the MVC conference meet.
Unlike their preseason rankings, the team stayed true to that projection.
The men’s team took home the MVC title last Saturday and, according to Gauson, demonstrated the team’s growth over the season.
“We had to work for it,” Gauson said. “One of our guys who’s really been our number four or five all year fell back a little bit, and one of our other guys stepped up big for us and ended up being our fifth … We had three in the top 10, which was very pleasing.”
The three that placed in the top 10 for the Braves were sophomores Michael Ward and Taylor Floyd-Mews and junior Patrick Campbell, who finished fourth, sixth and eighth, respectively.
While those three were named to the All-MVC first team, Ward also took home the Elite 18 award, which celebrates the runner with the fastest finish and cumulative GPA.
Gauson noted the team that won the conference title last Saturday wasn’t much different from the team that took third only a year ago.
“We lost our top two guys last year [because] Chase [Coffey] and Eric [Delvo] graduated,” Gauson said. “It was really the same team that got there, without the number one and the number two guy that we returned, and we were able to win it. I think that just shows their development over the course of the year.”
One of the runners who showcased his development in the conference meets was Floyd-Mews, whose sixth place finish earned him the second best 8K time in school history. His 8K time is only behind Ward, who set the school 8K record in Saturday’s conference meet.
Floyd-Mews said his role on the team steadily became greater as his body recovered from preseason injuries.
“I knew I was capable of more, but it was just a matter if my body will allow me to,” Floyd-Mews said. “Once I was able to recover, I kept striving for better and better … I kind of expected to be more up top, so when I got my chance at conference, I thought I could show that.”
Floyd-Mews said the conference meet’s smaller numbers also helped him place higher than he has in previous meets.
“It’s a smaller race than what we’re normally doing because there’s like 90 guys or so, and normally we’re in races that have 200,” Floyd-Mews said. “I thought I’d take advantage of the smaller field because usually I’d get caught in a big group and I can’t move up.”
As Floyd-Mews ran to his top 10 finish in the conference meets, Gauson also found himself keeping an impressive personal streak active by winning the men’s and women’s conference titles.
“Personally, I wanted to come in and keep [success] going,” Gauson said. “Last year, I won the men’s and women’s championships at Lamar, the year before I won the men’s and women’s championships at Lamar, so I’m keeping my coaching streak alive by winning the double.”
The cross country teams are in action Nov. 13 in Lawrence, Kansas, for the NCAA Regional races. While the regional race will boast the best talent the Braves have seen so far. Floyd-Mews said he knows the team can keep up.
“They can be daunting at first, but we’re all capable of running with them, so we just need to push ourselves and work together as a team,” Floyd-Mews said. “We can do well for ourselves.”
