Bradley’s indoor track and field scored the most points in program history and achieved a feat that hadn’t been done since 1997 at the MVC Indoor Championships on Feb. 27 and 28.
The 70 points put up by the women topped last year’s program-record of 58 points and the fourth place finish was the best in school history. The men’s 61 points were good enough for fourth and the most points they’ve scored since the 2019 championship.
For head coach Darren Gauson, his expectations were definitely met.
“[The team] probably overachieved, if anything,” Gauson said. “We’ve never had a meet as good during the indoor season as what we did during the weekend.”
The Braves set seven school records through the two-day competition, adding on to the plethora of marks set already this season.
On Sunday, freshman phenom Nicola Jansen won the 5,000-meter crown with a time of 16:31.32 before coming back on Monday to claim the 3,000-meter title. The South Africa native set a school record time of 9:24.28 and came within 0.16 seconds of breaking the meet record.
“I couldn’t ask for better,” Jansen said. “Ending and realizing, like, ‘I just won this and I’m just a freshman,’ it was pretty amazing and it’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
The week did not come without two odd bouts of adversity, as Jansen ran into a photographer who inexplicably ran onto the track in her victory in the 5000 meters. Senior men’s runner Miguel Agyei lost a shoe during one of his races as well.
Freshman Michael Rebello also won the 3,000 and the 5,000 on the men’s side, with his 3K time of 8:02.78 breaking the MVC Championship record. The victories earned him the MVC’s Most Valuable Athlete and Freshman of the Year for men’s indoor track.
Rebello was able to edge out junior teammate George Watson, who finished second in the 5,000 and third in the 3,000 to earn All-MVC honors. Despite Watson being the favorite to win these races, Rebello admits he may have had an upper hand thanks to some health problems.
“Personally, it’s just about mentally locking into each lap,” Rebello said. “I was sick for the whole week leading up to [the MVC championship], so I didn’t get to train a lot. That kind of helped on my legs, getting a little bit of extra rest.”
The victories marked the first time since 1997 that one school claimed both the men’s and women’s 3,000 and 5,000 meter titles at the same MVC Indoor Championship.
“It shows our dominance in the long distance and the middle distance,” Jansen said. “I think we really showed them [and] scared them a little bit.”
Bradley earned more all-conference honors, with sophomore Julia Nielsen’s second place finish and school record time of 2:08.68 in the 800-meter and sophomore Sophia McDonnell’s second place finish behind Jansen in the 3,000 claiming two of those accolades.
Nielsen, freshman Alice Narciso, freshman Amiyah Davis and sophomore Tiana LoStracco also earned All-Valley honors by finishing third in the women’s distance medley relay.
Overall, 25 of the 33 athletes the Braves sent to Chicago – and 16 of the 17 record-breaking women – were underclassmen, something not typically seen for a championship meet. However, as evidenced by the success they had, Gauson sees the potential and is excited that he gets these underclassmen back for next year.
“We’ve got a lot of really talented, young athletes on our team,” Gauson said. “Of the 70 points we scored on the women’s side, all those points return for next year. Same on the men’s side; we don’t lose anybody.”
As the indoor season comes to a close and 12 school records have been toppled, Gauson understands how monumental of a year it was and looks forward to what’s next.
“If you look at the school record book, we’ve just rewrote the whole thing,” Gauson said. “Everyone just sort of clicked at the right time at the conference meet and [I’m] really proud of what we’ve achieved. We’re ready for [the outdoor season] and excited for it.”
