Records are meant to be broken.
For Bradley track and field, this sentiment has held true throughout the season.
The team competed in three different meets over the past weekend. One contingent competed at the Drake Relays, another traveled to Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational and a final group went to Champaign for the Fighting Illini Twilight.
“The major challenge for the staff is ensuring everything works logistically,” head coach Andrew Carlson said. “Our goal as a staff is to place our student-athletes in the best position to compete at their highest level while staying within a budget, limited staff members and time constraints.”
“The biggest factor in a young athlete’s development is repeated exposure to competitive environments,” Carlson added. “And sometimes, the best way to achieve that is by splitting the squad between two or even three meets.”
Splitting the team seemed to work as they continued their impressive season, with numerous school records set at each event.
At the Drake Relays, sophomore Jaxson Copelin won the gold in the men’s 800m Finals with a time of 1:49.02. Freshman Jamie Phillips was behind him, taking home silver with a time of 1:49.29.
The women’s outdoor distance medley relay program record was broken at the meet by junior Kaitlyn Sheppard, senior Amiyah Davis, junior Trixie Wraith and graduate Abigail Hancock. They clocked in with a time of 11:13.80. Davis additionally broke her program record in the 400m event, running it in 54.71 seconds.
“Beyond the program records, which are the most highlighted, we have so many athletes impacting our program right now,” Carlson said. “We have student-athletes who set a very high standard for themselves and their teammates and work intensely each day to meet it, making us all look good.”
At Stanford, junior Nadia Potgieter set the third-fastest 5000m time in school history, running the long-distance event in 16:04.88.
At Illinois, the Braves had three new top ten times in sprints from freshman Olivia Redpath in the women’s 100m, freshman Carolina Martinez in the women’s 400m and freshman Brayson Barth in the men’s 200m. Freshman Julia de Palma Mendiguchia broke her program record in the women’s 400m hurdles with a time of 1:02.16.
“I was very pleased with how we competed at all three meets,” Carlson said. “There is always something positive to be taken from each competition, and any negative is quickly used as motivation for the next one or valuable information we can use to change the approach as the season progresses.”
Track and field will return to Illinois on Saturday to compete in the Gary Wieneke Memorial.
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