Three and a half weeks after the MVC Indoor Championships, Bradley track and field crossed the Missouri border to compete in their first three meets of the season in St. Louis.
Their first events came at the WashU Distance Carnival, where multiple Braves made a statement on the campus of the Division III school. On the men’s side, junior Kaden Kingsmith crossed the finish line with the fastest time in the 800m, clocking in at 1:47.55, four-hundredths of a second behind second place, followed by graduate David Locke’s eighth-place finish of 1:50.68.
Sophomore Travis Gaffney was Bradley’s top performer in the 1500m, finishing fourth with junior JD Rosslee just 0.6 seconds behind in sixth. The same event saw a ton of success on the women’s side, with junior Trixie Wraith placing first with a time of 4:22.19. Three more runners from the Hilltop took top-eight spots, those being junior Nadia Potgieter (3rd, 4:25.83), freshman Noelle Steines (6th, 4:26.76) and sophomore Eimear McCarroll (8th, 4:31.54).
Rounding out the top results from Washington University’s campus was senior Kaitlyn Sheppard, who took a 16:15.74 time in her first-place finals run of the 5000m.
Afterward, the team hopped on the bus and took a short 12-minute trip to Saint Louis University for the two events they were hosting, starting with the Saint Louis Speed/Power Festival.
Their best all-around event at this meet was the 1500m, as freshmen Jacob Trangmar and Bente van Milligen took first in the men’s and women’s races, respectively. The Braves also featured three other top-eight runners on the men’s side: junior Zach Balzer, sophomore Isaac Lind and freshman Landon Pogue.
Sophomore Bryndon Wallace was the only Bradley athlete to place in the top eight in a field event, securing a 6.35-meter long jump, or 20 feet, 10 inches. Moving over to the rest of the women’s events, sophomore Olivia Redpath started her season strong with a 12.11 100m dash, placing second among the 23 runners.
The women particularly excelled in the 200m on Friday, with spots one, two and three being taken by Braves. Freshman Julia Brown’s 25.22 led the charge, sophomore Carolina Martinez finished only 0.14 seconds behind and sophomore Julia de Palma was only 0.04 seconds slower, placing third. Freshman Ayva Rush also found her way into the top eight, finishing eighth with a 26.57 time.
The main event of the weekend, the Billiken Invitational, produced a ton of impressive times, including program bests. Most specifically, Redpath’s 11.98 100m broke Bradley’s previous outdoor record of 12.08, which was recorded back in 1986 by Tricia Dahlquist. Despite placing second in the event, she’d get her own back in the 200m with a first-place time of 24.81. Behind Redpath in both events were Brown’s sixth-place 100m time of 12.49 and Martinez’s third-place 200m time of 25.17.
Kingsmith also continued his weekend on the right note, placing second in the 400m and third on Bradley’s all-time leaderboard for the event. Following him in third and fourth were Phillips and Locke, who were 0.45 seconds apart.
The 800m was another event that ended up being Bradley-dominated, with freshman Michael Schmalz placing third, sophomore Isaac Lind finishing in seventh and freshman Christian Harris capping off the top eight. Finally, Pogue put in an impressive performance to win the 3000m steeplechase with the ninth-fastest time in Braves history.
Meanwhile, the women took first, second and third place again, but this time in the 800m. Steines and Potgieter finished in the top two spots with times under 2:13, and freshman Wiepke Schoeman clocked in at exactly 2:16. Fifth and sixth place were also taken by junior Carissa Hamilton and sophomore Rhune Vanroose.
The final few events on Bradley’s schedule were the 400m and 400m hurdles. Junior Eilen Brenne finished seventh in the former with a time of 59.04, and de Palma was only 0.06 seconds off of first place in the latter.
The Braves are back in action starting Friday, spending two days on the campuses of Stanford and Indiana State for their invitationals, and Saturday at the DII San Francisco State’s Mike Fanelli Track Classic.
